Reunited
by Metallica321
Summary: My brother betrayed me.  My sister is fed up with me.  I've killed innocent civilians and now my friends and family are forced by law to kill me.  But I've found a friend, Blaze the Cat.  Changed to M just to be safe.  Chapter 23 up.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first story so if it's a little you know...crappy, go easy on me and give me some suggestions (I think I spelled suggestions wrong). First few paragraphs are a somewhat corny. A little side note, if you don't see a story on certain days it probably means that i'm either in trouble or I don't have a scedual (I think I spelled that wrong too!). Anyway, on with the story!**

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"Keep moving, keep moving," she kept saying to herself. She was a brown squirrel with a blue vest and blue boots, her name is Sally Acorn. She was being chased by SWATbots who were currently shooting at her. While she was running she fell into a manhole and landed right on her back onto the cement walkway that ran next to the sewer water.

The breath was knocked right out of her. Finally when she regained access to oxygen, someone grabbed her hand and pulled her up. "Hey, let go of m-." She didn't finish her sentence because the mysterious figure cupped a hand over her mouth.

"Shhh, they'll hear you," the unknown person said. Sally could hear the SWATbots pass and when they were out of earshot, the figure took his hand off of Sally's mouth. She wanted to thank the stranger but he was already walking off. "Wait, you're just gonna help me out and not tell me your name?" The stranger walked into a ray of light from an open manhole before turning around to respond.

The figure was a green hedgehog male maybe a year or two older than Sally and maybe an inch taller. He wore a reddish brown vest and spiked wristbands. He also had two earrings in his left ear and a fanny pack. He had shaggy spikes on the back of his head, and crazy long spikes on the front. He spoke in a semi-deep voice with a slight surfer dude accent, so slight that you could barely tell if he wasn't almost yelling

"My name is none of you're business." He took a short pause. "Right now I'm trying to find someone named Sonic the Hedgehog. Do know him?" He spoke in a voice that was sharper than he indented.

Sally responded with interest. "Yeah, I know Sonic. I actually was his girlfriend at one point. But I wanted to ask you, why did you help me?"

Manic gave Sally a little smirk. "Probably 'cause I'm tired of all the SWATbots killing everybody that doesn't follow Eggman's laws. He acts like he owns the world." Manic was trying to think of something else to say, but he couldn't.

Sally took the opportunity to say something. "What's your name? You look familiar."

Manic wasn't to sure that he could trust Sally. He stared deep into her azure eyes. _Where have I seen this girl before?_ Finally he remembered. "You're Sally Acorn aren't you? Leader of the Freedom Fighters!"

"Yes. But that doesn't answer my question. What is your name." Sally spoke more sternly this time.

Manic was shocked. "I can't believe you don't remember me Sal!"

Sally was dumbfounded. "Only one other person has ever called me that!"

"Sonic does, I know. Sally, It's me, Manic. Manic the Hedgehog."

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**Oh yah! First chapter done! I hope you enjoied it and hope you don't stop reading new chapters. Sorry that this chapter was short but I promise to make the next one longer and better. I need some reviews so I can start my mark on history and feed my knowledge with new ideas. See ya later!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Manic? Is it really you? I thought you were dead!"

Manic smiled. "Well, when Eggman's base was going down, I thought I was going to die too. But when you, Sonic and the rest of you guys were waiting at the entrance for me, I dove out the window instead because it was closer.

"So that's what happened," said Sally. "But why did you choose right now to show up?"

"Well, I overheard that you forgot some equipment here at Robotropolis. I didn't expect you to go by yourself so I came with you, without you even knowing. When I saw that you were getting chased by SWATbots, I was a few blocks ahead of you and opened the manhole that you just fell in."

"Well thanks, I guess," said Sally shuffling her feet. "You said that you were looking for Sonic, why?"

"Let's just say that I want to repay him for something he did a long time ago."

Sally wanted to ask Manic what Sonic did, but she didn't want to press him for answers. Instead she asked him this, "I never got my equipment from Eggman's base. Could you help me?"

Manic thought about it for a second. "Sure, I haven't had any action in a while. But can we go to Knothole after?"

"Yeah," said Sally, satisfied.

Manic and Sally climbed out of the manhole and started heading towards Eggman's base. Sally led the way while Manic watched out for anything that might stand in their way.

"We're almost halfway there," said Sally while still looking forward.

Manic was surprised at how far away Sally had run to get away from the SWATbots. He was taking in all the familiar sights that he remembered from a few years back. While he was pondering his thoughts, something caught his ear.

He tapped Sally on the shoulder. "Hey Sally, do you here that?"

Sally strained her ears a little. "Yeah, I do. It sounds like a baby crying. And I think it's coming from over there," Sally pointed to a pile of trash and robotic limbs.

They made their way over to the sound and clawed away the rubble. What they found was a baby puppy doll. Sally picked up the doll and examined every inch of it.

"Hey Manic, Eggman's logo is on this doll," she handed it to Manic.

Manic gave a tiny chuckle. "Eggman plays with dolls?" Manic's expression instantly turned from humored, to suspicious. "Wait a minute."

Manic then put the doll up to his ear and heard a small ticking sound. Manic went wide eyed. "It's a bomb!" Manic then threw the doll as far as he could as soon as the bomb blew up. The force of the explosion sent Manic and Sally flying into a nearby metal wall.

Sally shrieked, "Ughh, son of a-." All of a sudden Sally was grabbed by a hand around her neck.

All she heard next was the sound of Manic's voice.

"Hey, let go of her!"

Sally felt the hand pull away from her neck and knew that Manic had ripped the assailant off of her. When Sally fully regained consciousness, she watched in awe as Manic and the unknown person started fighting.

The figure threw a punch at Manic, which he avoided. Manic then threw a hard right hook at the assailant which sent the figure sailing into a pile of rubble a few feet away. One punch was all it took because the man got up and ran off.

Manic turned to Sally and held out his hand and helped her up. "Manic, what just happened?"

Manic was breathing heavily, "A damn scavenger decided he was gonna try and take you to his shelter or something. He must not have seen me, or else he wouldn't have messed with us."

"You must have punched that guy pretty hard to make him run away in one hit." Sally smiled.

Manic laughed, "Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, let's get to Eggman's base."

Sally and Manic kept heading toward Eggman's base without stopping this time, right up until they both heard the sound of a single engine plane.

Manic cursed, "Not again."

The plane landed maybe 10 yards away from where they were. It was too dark outside to tell what color it was or how many people were in it. But Manic watched as a single figure jumped out of the plane. As he walked closer, Manic could tell who it was right away.

"Hi Sally! Glad to see that you weren't captured," the figure said. He smiled at Sally and looked over at Manic with concern. "Who's this?"

Manic rolled his eyes and turned to Sally, "Has everyone at Knothole forgotten who I am?"

Sally started laughing, "I guess so!"

Manic turned to the kid and went down on one knee so that he was eye level with him. "Come on kid you're smart. You should be able to remember who I am."

He looked at Manic's blue eyes, "I honestly don't know who you are."

Manic was a little disappointed that the smartest person he knew didn't remember him.

"Okay Miles, maybe you'll remember me after this. I'm the only one who ever mechanically helped you work on all your projects, including the Blue Typhoon. I'm also Sonic's brother." Manic was pretty confident that he would jog his memory with that.

Suddenly, Tails remembered.

"You're Manic aren't you? Manic the Hedgehog!" Tails exclaimed.

Manic smiled. "Bingo, kid."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 is done. Thanksgiving break is treating me good. Hope you enjoy this one.**

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"So, what have you been doing for the past couple of years kid," said Manic as he, Sally and Tails were heading toward the X-Tornado.

"Mostly just making new vehicles for us to use to get around faster. What have you been doing?"

"Avoiding the law, keeping a low profile. Sounds like you've had it easier." Said Manic with a smile.

Manic, Sally and Tails walked up to the X-Tornado. Manic looked up at the plane and laughed. "Man, I haven't seen this plane in forever!"

They all hopped in. Tails took the controls, Sally sat in the passenger seat behind him, and Manic held onto the wing. Then they took off. Manic felt great up on the wing. The wind rushed by him like water. They got to Eggman's base in seconds compared to how long it took to walk there.

Tails landed the plane in a clearing near their destination. Manic hopped off the plane and landed silently on the grass. He took out a pair of binoculars and scanned the front entrance. "Looks like there's two SWATbots at the front of the base. Should be easy to take down," he directed his direction towards Sally. "How did you get your bag stuck in their?"

"The last time we confronted Eggman I brought my bag along because it contained equipment that we needed. When we got to his office, he already had his roboticized guards guarding him. They all started shooting at us and we had to get out of there fast. And I guess when I was running my backpack slipped off my shoulder. So that's why we're here." Sally looked at Tails who nodded in confirmation.

Tails looked at Manic and gave him an earpiece. "Use this to contact us if you get in trouble. Just hold down the button when you want to talk," said Tails while he gave Sally a microphone too.

Manic smiled and tested out the mic. "Thanks Tails. Well, let's get going."

They all started sneaking toward the front of the base. When they got close to the front door, Tails threw out two small round devices at the SWATbots, which exploded in an electrical ball big enough to surround both of the guards. The explosives disabled the SWATbots.

Tails started running for the door, "Hurry! Those EMPs won't work forever."

The three busted through the door, and finally they were in Eggman's base. The room they were in continued down three hallways.

Tails turned around and explained the plan. "Okay, first of all, we need to find Sally's bag. So that means that each of us need to go down one of these hallways. As soon as one of us finds it, that person needs to contact us so we can get out of here."

"Alright," said Manic and Sally simultaneously.

Sally took the right hall, Manic took the left hall, and Tails took the middle one.

The hall that Manic took led to an open room filled with roboticized people, half-roboticized people, and everything in between.

Manic looked around in disgust. "You're a sick bastard Eggman."

Manic came up to a tube tube that held a fully roboticized figure. Manic knew who it was right away. He touched the tube and whispered, "Farrel..."

Manic all of a sudden heard someone behind him. He whipped around, "Hey, whose their!"

Manic heard a feminine voice call out, "Just making sure you're not here for any trouble."

"What? Show yourself!"

A white bat walked out from the darkness. She wore a black, skin tight suit, white gloves that came up to her elbows, white knee high boots with hearts at the ends, and a heart shaped breast plate. She slowly and seductively walked up to Manic. "You're not trying to cause any trouble, are you?"

Manic was slightly stunned at how close the bat was getting to him, but he wasn't about to be taken advantage of. "No, I'm not."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Sorry. But I can't tell you that."

The bat had a look of disappointment on her face, "You don't trust me do you?"

Manic had backed up against Farrels tube in an attempt to keep some distance between him and the bat. "No, I don't."

She had gotten so close to Manic that their faces were only an inch apart. "You wouldn't happen to be trying to find a backpack, would you?"

Manic was wondering how she knew about it. "Yes I am. But how did you know I was looking for it?"

The bat smiled. "Because I was here when Sally dropped it. I told Eggman that I would take it back to my place. Luckily, he let me." She took the backpack off her shoulders. "Here, take it."

Manic hesitantly took it, "You didn't put some sort of explosive in here, did you?"

The bat laughed, "No. Before you leave, I didn't catch your name."

"I guess I do owe you something. My name is Manic the Hedgehog. What's yours?"

"Rouge, Rouge the Bat."

A sudden vision flashed in Manic's head. It showed Manic in some sort of village. There was a fleet of Eggman's ships overhead. Tails was standing beside him yelling at him. All he could make out was "tracking device on the bag." Manic instantly grew angry at Rouge.

He gripped her neck with his left hand, "Does Eggman know were Knothole Village is?"

Rouge was gasping for air, "No...he...doesn't. Tails put a giant...cloaking device...over it."

Manic growled, "If Eggman ever attacks Knothole, and I find out that it was because of you, I will kill you!" He let go of her neck.

Rouge started rubbing her neck, "In that case, you have nothing to worry about. Goodby Manic."

Manic started heading toward the entrance, he pressed the button on the earpiece. "Tails, Sally, I got the bag. Meet me at the entrance."

Tails came through first, "Okay Manic. We'll be right there!"

Sally came through next, "Manic, the hallway that I went down had a steel door that was locked, so I'm already at the entrance."

"Alright Sally, see ya in a minute."

When Manic got to the entrance, like she said, Sally was already standing there. "Where's Tails," asked Manic.

Sally looked at Manic, "I haven't seen him. But over the mic it sounded like he was on his way already."

Manic pressed on the microphone, "Tails, were are you. We need to go!"

"I'm here." yelled Tails.

Manic swung around, "Come on, we need to go."

They all ran out of Eggman's base and towards the X-Tornado. The SWATbots were still disabled, which surprised Tails. When they got to the plane they all got into the same places in the plane, and Tails took off as fast as he could.

Tails laughed in triumph, "Knothole, here we come!"

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**Chapter 3 is done! Hope you enjoyed it and keep on reading my story. I'm glad that I got at least one review.**


	4. Chapter 4

**This is my fourth chapter. This chapter will lead up to a good chapter. Enjoy! (A little side note, I don't know what Knothole exactly looks like. All I know is that the Freedom Fighters live there, and there is a giant tree that sits in the center of it. So I am going to describe my vision of Knothole. Sorry, but I ain't perfect).**

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Manic could see the tree that toward over the others that laid in the center of Knothole from the X-Tornado.

Manic yelled down to Tails, "Is that it?"

"Yeah, maybe another half-mile."

Manic thought too himself, _Finally, I'm coming Sonic._

Tails landed the plane behind his laboratory on a helipad that he must have constructed. They hopped out of the plane and started heading towards Tails' lab. When they got inside, Manic looked around in interest. Usually a lab would be cluttered with blueprints, sketches and candy bar wrappers. But Tails' lab was surprisingly clean, the candy wrappers were in the wastebasket.

Manic turned to Sally, "So, we gonna go around and tell everyone that I'm back?"

Sally smirked, "No need, follow me."

Manic followed Sally to a small room that held a microphone that connected to the wall. Sally held down a button on the microphone and spoke. "Special announcement, a supposedly dead member of the Freedom Fighters has come back. He will be living in his old home that has been kept undisturbed. His name is Manic the Hedgehog."

Manic chuckled, "So we're going to make my return a huge deal?"

"Of course we are! You're a prince. And you're the brother of the greatest hero alive."

Manic scowled, "I'm not a prince, I'm a street rat. A nobody. And don't even get me started on that blue hedgehog. I'm not in the mood right now." Manic wasn't the only one shocked at his tone.

Sally hesitantly spoke, "I'm sorry." She took a pause. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm sorry that I yelled at you." He quickly changed the subject. "Can I go and see my old house please?"

Sally was relieved, "Sure. Do you still know where it is?"

Manic started to leave, "I think I can find it."

"Manic?"

He turned around, "Yeah?"

She threw him a little half-smile, "I'm glad you're back."

Manic smiled back, "It's good to be back."

When Manic stepped out of Tails' laboratory, he was instantly lost. In fact, he found a bench to sit on until he remembered where his house was. While he was thinking, a sweet voice started calling his name. He opened his eyes and saw that a light purple hedgehog was standing in front of him. She was wearing a dress with a short purple skirt and gloves that went up to her elbows. She had hair that was a couple shades darker than her fur. She also had a crystal necklace that was in the shape of a keyboard. Her name is Sonia the Hedgehog, Manic's sister.

Manic slowly stood up, "Sonia? Is that you?"

She didn't say anything. She just hugged Manic and cried. Manic hugged her back and smiled.

She looked at Manic, trying to regain control, "I'm glad to see you're not dead."

Manic laughed, "You should have known that I would go that easily."

She let go of Manic, "Why are just sitting here? Are you waiting for someone?"

"I was looking for my old house, but I couldn't remember where it was. So I decided to wait here for Sonic."

Sonia was a little angry, "You wanted to wait for him and not me?"

Manic noted her tone, "I wanted to repay him for what he did to me three years ago."

Sonia knew exactly what Manic was talking about. She sat down next to him, "Manic, he didn't know it was gonna turn out like that."

Manic glared at her, "I don't care! He shouldn't have even taken the risk!"

"Well you're the one that agreed to do it! So you can't completely blame it on him.."

"HE LIED TO ME! And you're no better. You helped him plan the whole thing!"

Sonia was a little taken back by Manic's sudden anger, "But Manic, Eggman was going to kill you if you didn't accept the experiment."

Manic looked away, "I would've rather chosen death."

Sonia stood and mumbled, "I didn't want to lose my brother."

She walked away leaving Manic to think about what had just occurred. He got up and started to walk off when someone appeared behind him.

It was an angry voice, "Hey, are you the one that yelled at my sister?"

Manic turned around with an evil look on his face, "Maybe. But she's my sister too."

The person that confronted Manic was a blue hedgehog. He wore red and white shoes with gold buckles on the sides. He has emerald green eyes and is the same height as Manic. His name is Sonic the Hedgehog, Manic's brother.

Sonic was shocked, "Manic. You're alive?"

Manic talked in a demonic voice that didn't belong to him, "Yes Sonic, I am. And I have come back for my revenge!"

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**(Que epic music) Ooohhh, cliff hanger. What's gonna happen? IDK! But I can tell you this, it's gonna be cool! Click on the button below so that I can have more reviews. Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5

**This is gonna be a good chapter. I honestly don't have anything against Sonic. It's just that I think Sega made him a little too cocky. I also have a friend who is really show-offy and cocky and it kind of annoys me. So enjoy.**

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"Revenge? What are you talking about?" asked Sonic.

Manic was still talking in a demonic voice, "Do you not remember when you let Eggman run those experiments on me? How much pain I went through?"

Sonic recalled the event in his head, "Yeah, but it was either that or death. I didn't want to lose you bro."

"Shut up! You knew how much pain the experiments were going to inflict on me! And don't say you didn't!"

Sonic knew exactly how much pain Manic had to go through. Before the experiments, Eggman had pulled him aside and explained how the procedure was going to work.

**THREE YEARS AGO**

The tyrant spoke in a booming voice, "That's all we're going to do. Before we begin the procedure, I have to ask you if it is okay with you if we do it without sedatives."

Sonic was a little hesitant to answer, "Why can't you use sedatives?"

"We ran out. Anyway, do you accept?"

"Shouldn't you be asking Manic if it's okay with him?"

Eggman had a blank look on his face, "No, because if we do, he might freak out. Now, do you accept?"

Sonic thought about it, "Yes."

**PRESENT DAY**

Manic was slowly moving closer to Sonic, "You put me through hell Sonic. And now, I'm gonna kill you because of it!"

Sonic was truly scared of Manic at this point. Manic's fur changed from green, to a creepy black. His eyes turned from blue, to yellow. His quills grew about a foot longer each, and his fangs grew a couple inches longer.

Manic ran at Sonic at full speed. Sonic tried to run, but Manic simply reached out his hand and wrapped his strong fingers around his neck. Manic simply threw Sonic into a nearby tree at full force. Sonic got up after being stunned for a few seconds. He sprinted up to Manic and punched him in the face as hard as he could, which resulted in Manic sliding a few yards backwards on his feet. The attack only angered Manic more.

Manic stood looking at Sonic. All of a sudden, Manic's pupils disappeared. He raised his hands up to his face and whispered something strange. Manic's hands suddenly caught on fire. Before Sonic knew it, Manic was standing in front of him with a hand on his chest. Sonic tried to remove his hand, but his hand was somehow latched on to his chest. Sonic was screaming in agony. His screaming was so loud that hearing impaired people could hear.

Manic was enjoying every scream that Sonic was making. Just then, Manic felt something heavy smack him in the back of the head. The impact was enough to make Manic drop Sonic. He turned around and saw a pink hedgehog wielding a steel baseball bat. He just smiled and took the baseball bat and used it to hit Sonic in the face. Sonic was finally knocked out by the pain.

Manic was a little disappointed that Sonic was passed out, but he could live with it. The pink hedgehog ran up to Sonic's limp body and looked up at Manic, "What did you do to him?"

Manic smiled with glee, "I finally showed him the pain that I went through." Manic's body slowly turned back to normal. With his normal form coming back, he also started to realize how much damage that he inflicted on his brother.

Manic's expression turned blank, "Take him to the hospital, tell me when he wakes up. I want to talk to him."

The pink hedgehog flashed an angry look at Manic, "I don't want you anywhere near Sonic!"

Manic made an equally angry face back at the girl, "Look Amy, I'm not in the mood right now to be argued with."

Amy was surprised, "How did you know my name?"

Manic was kind of mad that no one at Knothole remembered him, "Just tell him."

Manic walked off towards Tails' workshop.

Amy watched him walk off, "Manic?"

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**And there you go. I'll try to explain what's wrong with Manic in the next chapter. So just wait. See ya later!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I know that the last chapter was kinda short and not the best, but I'm going to try to explain what's wrong with Manic in this chapter. Enjoy.**

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Manic knocked on the door to Tails' base, "Tails open up. I need to talk to you."

Tails swung open the door angrily, "What do you want?"

Manic flinched, "Are you okay?"

"No Manic, I'm not okay. I looked out the window to see where all the noise was coming from and what do I find? You, killing Sonic!"

Manic looked down in shame, "I know. That's why I'm here. I need your help."

"Why?"

Manic looked back at Tails, "I want to find out what's wrong with me, what Eggman did to me. So I need you to help me."

Tails couldn't say no. After all, Manic had helped him and the rest on more than one occasion.

Tails sighed, "Okay Manic, come on in."

Manic walked into the lab and followed Tails into the main room. The room contained two chairs, a rug, and a fireplace.

Manic looked around, "This place looks like a hotel lobby."

Tails sat down in one chair and motioned Manic to sit in the other one.

Tails spoke first, "Before we start anything, I need to know what happened to you three years ago."

Manic took a deep breath, "Okay." Manic told Tails every thing. He told him about how Sonic betrayed him, how Eggman put some sort of energy into his DNA, and how his body transformed while he was fighting Sonic. Tails listened to every word with interest.

Finally, Manic finished. He took a deep breath, "And that's my story."

Tails was astounded, "Incredible! You went through all that?"

"Yeah. That's why whenever I see Sonic, I want to kill him. Eggman must have extracted dark chaos energy out of the emerald and injected it into my DNA somehow."

"Yeah, must have."

"To be honest Tails, I really don't want to step foot outside this lab until everyone knows it wasn't my fault."

Tails shifted in his seat, "Well people might find out that you're here and come and break my door down. So we're gonna have to tell them soon because by now, everyone in Knothole knows about what just happened."

"Do you think we should do it now?"

"The sooner the better." Tails stood up and started to head toward the room with the the microphone. Manic didn't follow him, he just listened to the muffled, amplified voice of Tails as he told Knothole about his problem. Manic was thinking about how he was going to be treated after what happened.

Manic didn't want to move from his spot in his chair. He just looked out the window and sighed. It was dark out, maybe 9:00, and Manic realized how tired he was. Manic found a comfortable way to sit in his chair, and closed his eyes.

Sleep didn't come easily. Manic was still fixated on what might happen the next day. He wasn't scared, he was just worried. When sleep finally set in, Manic started having a nightmare.

The nightmare was like the vision he had when he was being confronted by Rouge, except it took place after Manic found out there was a tracking device on Sally's bag. Manic was standing on a wood platform with a rope tied around his neck and his hands tied behind his back. He looked around, and found that Knothole was destroyed. He looked to the ground and saw injured and dead anthros. The survivors were either screaming at him or throwing random objects at him.

Manic looked to his right and saw Knuckles the Echidna walk up to the wooden lever next to Manic.

Knuckles pulled out a book and started reciting words form it. Manic wasn't listening to what he was saying. The only thing that he caught was "I hereby sentence you to death. Any last words before the sentence is carried out?"

Manic's voice was low, "Just get it over with."

Knuckles took hold of the lever, "Very well."

At that point, time slowed down for Manic. He took one last look at everyone in the audience, some of the women and children were crying. Then, Knuckles pulled the lever and Manic felt the floor drop out from under him.

Manic shot straight up in his chair. He instantly grabbed for his neck, which was perfectly fine. He then looked out the window as light shot through and on his face. Manic removed the blanket that was on him and stood up. Manic thought to himself, _Was I already covered in that blanket when I fell asleep last night? _Manic figured that Tails covered him in it while he was asleep. Manic started rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. When he was done, he looked down at the chair in front of him. There was a note sitting on the chair.

Manic picked up the note and started reading it. _Manic, everything is resolved and you can go outside now. You may get a few dirty looks, but that shouldn't be a problem. We've kept your house pretty clean, so you don't have to worry about it being dirty, if you can find it. From: Tails_

_P.S.: Watch out for Sally and/or Amy. They're both pretty pissed off!_

Manic put down the note and walked toward the front door. He slowly opened the and poked his head out. There weren't a lot of people out, so Manic completely walked outside. He walked down the road in the direction that his house was in. He was avoiding eye contact with everyone on the way. Luckily for Manic, nobody was really even paying attention to there surroundings.

When Manic reached his house, he found that the key was taped to the door. He took the key off the door and unlocked the door. He stepped into the house and found it clean like Tails said. He walked into his room and saw that everything was the same. His bed was in the same spot, his drum kit and pictures were also in the same spot. Nothing has changed.

Manic then heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Before he even had time to react, the door swung open to reveal a yellow mongoose girl about his age. She had purple hair and big green eyes. She wore a black tank top and khaki shorts. She had green gloves and boots, and she also had three rings in her left ear and one in her right.

Manic was caught by surprise, "Who are you?"

She instantly responded, "Who are _you_?"

"My name is Manic the Hedgehog. I live here."

"You live here?"

"Yes. Now what is your name."

She stared straight into his eyes, "My name is Mina Mongoose." She examined him. "Hey, you're the one that Tails was talking about yesterday on the intercom. You're the one that hurt Sonic!"

"Yeah, I know. I'm not proud of it." Manic looked out the window. "Do you know where he's staying?"

"Right now he's in the infirmary. Why?"

"I wanna go and talk to him." Manic tried to walk out the door but Mina blocked his way.

Manic became slightly irritated, "Out of my way girl."

Mina had a nasty look on her face, "I don't want you anywhere near him."

"Listen, I'm not going to hurt him ever again. I just want to talk to him and explain myself. Now please move."

"I don't believe you."

"MOVE!" Manic picked up Mina around the waist and forcefully moved her.

Mina was kicking and screaming, "Let go of me!"

Manic smiled, "I told ya to move."

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**There you go. My sixth chapter. I'm planning to put in a couple couples, but I need suggestions on who's with who. So if you have any suggestions, you need to review. See ya.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I guess Sonic isn't as cocky as I thought. But you live and you learn. But since that is out of the way, here is chapter 7. **

"Let me go," screamed Mina.

Manic slowly and carefully put her down. He then continued to walk to the infirmary.

Mina started following him, "Well if you're going to go see him, I want to come with you."

"Have it your way."

When they got close to the infirmary, Manic noticed that he had a splitting headache. Maybe from when Amy attacked him yesterday. They walked into the tiny hospital.

Mina walked up to the lady at the front desk, "We need to see Sonic please."

She quickly responded, "Well right now he's sleeping, but you can stay there untill he wakes up."

"Thanks."

Manic wasn't even paying attention. He kept looking at the pictures of Sonic that were on the wall. Mina grabbed his hand and took him to Sonic's room.

When they got there, they sat down on the couch that was in the corner. Mina crossed her left leg over her right, and grabbed a magazine from off a nearby coffee table. Manic dug himself deep into the corner of the couch between the armrest, and the cushion.

Manic glanced at Sonic's body, "I can't believe I did this to him."

Mina was captivated by her magazine, "Don't be so hard on yourself. It wasn't your fault."

Manic just sighed and closed his eyes, "Tell me when Sonic wakes up."

Mina rolled her eyes but nodded in confirmation.

Manic started thinking about stuff. _I just don't get it. We used to be such a happy family. Just me Sonic, and Sonia. Now, my sister is angry with me, my brother is in the hospital because of me, and people will probably always remember me as "The One Who Nearly Killed Sonic"._

Just then, Manic heared an unfilmilier voice. _But what is so wrong about that?_

_Who's there?_

_It's me, Ashura. The one who almost destroyed Sonic._

Manic was now furious. _You. You're the one that took over my body._

_Yup. I've always been a part of you Manic. And all it took was a bit of dark chaos energy to release me._

_But why?_

_Well, when the dark chaos energy was put into your body, instead of changing you, it made me turn evil. Since I decided to destroy your life in any way possible, I decided to kill off everybody that you have ever had an emotional connection to. I would have too, if it weren't for your strong will. You took back controll just as I was about to finish him off._

_Shut up!_

_Just let me do it. He's sitting right there defenceless!_

"Get out of my head!" Manic said this part outloud.

Mina was startled, "Manic what's wrong?"

Manic growled, "Uhh, nothing. Just having a nightmare."

Mina returned her attention to her magazine, "Okay. Well the doctor came in and said that Sonic should be up in a couple of minutes."

"Good."

Manic was anxious to explain everything to his brother. Another 10 minutes passed and Manic was starting to think that the doctor had lied to them. He decided that he was going to try and sleep. But just as he started to drift off, he heard Sonic grumble something unusual.

Manic open his eyes, and looked in Sonic's direction. Sonic sat up in his bed and started rubbing his tempels, "Ughh, what happened." Then he looked to his left and saw Manic and Mina looking at him. He looked at Manic for two seconds and started remembering what had happened.

Mina stood up and spoke first, "Sonic, we're glad that you're awake."

Sonic looked from Mina back to Manic, "Are you sure _he_ is?" Then he looked back at Mina, "Hey Mina, can I talk to you for a couple seconds?"

Mina walked up to Sonic and whispered, "What do you need?"

Sonic kept the same tone, "What the hell is he doing here?"

"He wants to explain everything that happened."

"Well get him out of here."

"He just wants to help."

"I don't want his help. Look what he did to me!" He pointed at himself.

She stared sternly at him, "Sonic, he's going to tell you why he put you in the hospital. Like it or not."

Sonic layed back down and sighed, "Fine."

Mina turned around and nodded at Manic, who stood up and started reciting everything, again.

When he was done, he sat back down. Manic knew his brother was a forgiving person, and that's why he was extremely surprised when Sonic replied to what he just heard.

Sonic didn't know how to react. The only thing that he didn't believe was the part when Manic said his body was being taken over. He had to come to a decision, so he sat up, "I don't care. It was you who attacked me. I really doubt that someone took over your body."

Manic was slowly getting angry, "Sonic, its happened to you before. When you get furious the power from the chaos emeralds turns you into Dark Sonic or whatever you call it."

Sonic responded, "That's why I don't believe you. You can't use chaos control."

Manic sat up straight in the couch and pounded his fist on the armrest, "Damnit Sonic I told you before that I can, and I have."

"And I'm telling you that you can't. I think I know why you attacked me, you're jealous of me."

"What? Why would I be jealous of you?"

"Maybe cause I'm more famous than you and get all the women. I mean look at you, you're just a filthy _street rat!_"

Manic was totally pissed now. He had tried to control his anger as best he could, so he just stood up and left the room.

Sonic yelled after him, "Yeah run away you sewer dweller!"

Mina had stayed quite the whole time. She was very disappointed in Sonic.

She turned to him, "I can't believe you just did that."

"He'll get over it."

Mina then smacked Sonic across the face and stormed out of the room, leaving him to sort out what just occured.


	8. Chapter 8

**Finally chapter 8 is here, and that's all I have to say.**

Manic just kept on walking. He started walking out of Knothole, and didn't stop untill he heard a femanine voice say something.

He turned around, "Who's there?"

He heard the voice again, "You might want to calm down a little. It's not healthy to be angry."

"Show yourself!"

At that moment a lavendar colored cat walked out of the darkness with perfect balance. She wore pink heels and white gloves both with puffy cuffs around her wrists and ankles. The feline also wore a purple robe and a gold necklace. Manic also noticed that she wore her hair pointing up and she had a jewel on her forehead.

Manic wasn't about to let anybody calm him down, he liked the feeling of anger too much. He asked again, "Who are you?"

She spoke in a calm voice that Manic found soothing, "My name is Blaze. Blaze the Cat. You must be Manic."

Manic didn't even want to question how she knew him, by now everyone in Knothole probably did.

"Well Blaze, it's nice to meet you." He rotated back around, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some conflicts that I need to work out."

"Well maybe you could talk to me about it. I'm a good listener."

Manic had never talked to anyone about his problems in the past, perhaps it now was a better time than ever.

"Fine." Said Manic in a low monotone.

Blaze caught up with him, "So, what's on your mind?"

They kept walking, "It's Sonic."

"What about him?"

"He's an asshole."

"He is? Why, what did he do?"

"Well, I was just explaining why I assulted him, and he basically called me a liar. Then he said that the reason I nearly killed him is because I was jealous of him. And after that, he called me a street rat!" Even though Manic was agitated beyond repair, it made him feel good that he was talking to another living thing instead of keeping it bottled inside.

Blaze was enjoying the conversation so far, "And that's why you're here?"

"Yeah."

Night had fallen, and Manic found a clearing with a tree stump in the middle. He sat down and leaned up against it. Blaze did the same thing.

She started playing with a small fireball, "Anything else that's bothering you?"

Manic rested his eyes, "Not at the moment."

Then Blaze thought of something, "Why don't you tell me about your past?"

Manic opened one eye, "Really? I guess if you want. The whole story or just the past few years when I was gone?"

"Just the past few years."

"Alright. Well I guess I'd better start from when Eggman's base went down."

**Yeah I know this chapter is really short, but I was having conflicting ideas. But I think I want to do a ManicXBlaze only because i've never seen it before done before. Chapter 9 will be up soon.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I plan on making this chapter really long so yeah. Also, if my spelling is off it's because my new program doesn't have spell check.**

"The experiments had just been run on me and the base was falling down. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Sally were all outside of the base waiting for me, but the exit was blocked. So I dove out the window. When I hit the river below, I swam to shore and sat there for a while. I looked up at where they were waiting for me and decided not to go back."

Blaze chose this time to speak, "Why didn't you want to go back?"

"I needed time to think. I just wanted to be alone. The pain from the procedure stuck with me for the next year after that. The second year was no better. I started having visions of the dead, and I constantly felt like I was being watched. Usually you feel safe when you're with someone or multiple people, I didn't feel safe anywhere.

"What do you mean by visions of the dead?"

"Basically I started seeing ghosts. And they haunted me endlessly. This year has been the worst so far. I've been having visions of future events, whether asleep or not. Most of it's not true, but I'm not sure. But, I have Sonic to thank for all these symptoms."

Blaze was starting to feel sorry for Manic, "I'm sorry."

Manic shifted his weight on his left arm so he was looking at Blaze, "It's not that bad. You kind of get used to it. So what about you? What was your past like?"

"Well I used to be a Princess in an alternate dimension. When I was little the kids used to make fun of me because of my pyrokinetic powers, and that's why I where this cape to hide the flames."

Since Blaze took a pause, Manic asked a question, "Why would the kids make fun of you?"

"Because I am different."

"Come on Blaze, you're not different. Where I come from, you would be praised for having those powers. Not made fun of."

"Thanks for trying to make me feel better." She wanted to tell Manic about when Sonic went to Blaze's dimension, but she suspected that Manic didn't want to hear about Sonic right now. She had just realized how long they had been talking and guessed that it was maybe 11:00.

She jumped up, "It's late. I sould probably head back to my temple."

"You have a temple?"

"It's where I put all my Sol Emeralds."

Manic and Blaze said there goodbies and went there seperate ways. Manic jogged back to his house and unlocked the door with the key that was under the mat. He took a quick shower and went to bed.

He didn't instantly go to sleep. He stayed up for hours thinking about Blaze. There was just something about her that he found attractive. If this was love, then this was the first time Manic had ever expierienced it before. He rolled over and drifted off to sleep.

Manic woke up the next morning with an unusual tingling sensation in his head. Then he heard that same voice that he wish he would never hear again.

_Good morning Manic._

_Ughh, what do you want?_

_Looks like I found one more person to rip from your life._

_Blaze...you better not touch her!_

_It's not me whose going to hurt her, it's gonna be you._

With that, the internal battle was over...for now. Manic got up, put on his shoes and headed outside. He noticed that Sonia was waiting outside his house. He tried to walk past but she grabbed his arm.

She looked a little steamed, "Manic, I need you to talk to Sonic."

Manic didn't even need to think of a decision, "No."

"Why not?"

"Well let's see, he called me a liar and a street rat. I get that enough from you, and Sonic was the last person I depended on to not say stuff like that. But now that you both have critisized my backround, I don't want to speak to either of you for the next couple of weeks. Have a nice day." Manic walked off without any regrets for what he just did.

Sonia just ran off. Manic found the nearest bench and sat down and closed his eyes. He had alot to think about, and it was only a 10:00AM.

He started having visions, and it seemed like he couldn't open his eyes. He saw Blaze standing in an open field. She turned to him and smiled. Then Manic saw someone that looked like him appear behind her and give him an evil grin.

"No..." Manic's eyes snapped open. He noticed that someone was sitting next to his left. It was Blaze. Manic got that nice feeling again.

"Uhh, hi Blaze."

"Hello Manic. How are you doing?"

"Terrible."

"Why?" 

"It's not only Sonic this time, it's Sonia too."

"Oh. Manic, I wanted to ask you something."

Manic sat up, "What is it?" Before Blaze could ask Manic her question, a sudden ball of fire hit the ground in front of them. They both looked up and saw a giant ship overhead. Manic remembered the vision he had when he was talking to Rouge.

Tails came running up to Manic and Blaze, "Manic, the bag had a tracking device on it!"

"What?"

"Sally's bag had a tracking device on it!"

Manic was enfuriated, "That bat, I'm gonna kill her!"

Tails went back to his lab to get the X-Tornado. He took off and headed toward Eggman's ship. From the ship, you could hear Eggman from the intercom.

"Dear citizens of Knothole, I am excited to announce that you are all going to die today. Thank you for your time."

Manic knew that all of this was his fault, so he had to finish it. He came up with a plan to tear the ship apart.

"I hope I have enough energy to do this." Manic thought out loud.

He held out his hands in the direction of the ship and balled them into fists. He started slowly pulling his arms apart. The ship continued to tear apart, untill Manic's arms were out parallel to his shoulders.

By now the whole ship was torn in half and Manic used the rest of his energy to throw Eggman's vessel as far away from Knothole as possible. He was amazed at what he just did.

Blaze ran up to him, "Manic, how did you do that?"

His eyes drooped, "I'll tell you later..." Then he passed out.

**This chapter actually seemed really long when I wrote it, so yeah.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10. Well, here you go. There might be a character death, so read with caution.**

Manic woke up in his room. He tried to get up and look around, but he was still weak. As he lay there, he could faintly hear two voices coming from outside his room. He could tell that it was Tails and Blaze.

"He has alot of power, but he just needs more time to let it come to light. I'm not even sure if he knew he could do that." Said Tails.

"Well why don't you come and ask me?" Yelled Manic.

The door slowly opened and they both walked in. He didn't understand why they were being so quiet, he obviously wasn't asleep.

Blaze spoke first, "How are you feeling?"

"Like hell."

Tails popped in, "Manic, do you know how you took down Eggman's ship?"

Manic thought for a moment, "I'm not exactly sure. I guess I decided that since it was made out of metal that I could pull it out of the sky."

"But why would you suspect that?"

"Well, I can control earth elements remember? And metal is made from earth material. It's a little complex, but it makes sence." He paused. "Was anyone hurt?"

Blaze looked down, "That's kinda what we wanted to talk to you about."

Manic started getting worried. He was capable of murder, just not to anyone that he knew or that lived in Knothole.

Tails slowly continued, "When you threw the ship, it didn't go as far as we anticipated. The two halves landed in different sections of Knothole. 32 civilians were killed."

Manic felt the world die around him. He knew the laws of Knothole, and the penalty of homocide, is death.

He stood up and stared out the window, "So, how much more time do I have?"

Tails shuffled his feet, "Untill tomarrow. 3:00PM."

"Perfect. That gives me a day to be hated right up to my death."

Blaze's voice was a little shakey, "Um, we've gotta go. We told Cream that we would help her bake a cake."

Manic directed his attention back to them, "How many people know?"

"Everybody except Cream."

"Okay. I'll be here if you need me."

Blaze and Tails left. Manic just sat on his bed for a while. He couldn't believe that he came all this way, just to be executed.

The rest of the day went by really slow. He just sat in the same spot looking back on his life. When night rolled around he noticed that no one ever really said goodbye. He was pretty convinced that no one honestly cared about him. He grabbed the picture of him, Sonic, and Sonia that he kept near his bed and just stared at it untill his eyes grew heavy. Then he rolled over and went to sleep.

The next day Manic got up, went out to the living room, and flipped on the t.v. He was disappointed when he saw that nothing good was on. Then there was that cursed voice.

_Hello again._

_What do want._

_Just decided to drop in. You know Manic, I can't wait till you die. Because then, I'm going to take over._

_What?_

_Oh yeah, you don't know. I'm not a parasite, I don't die when the host dies. In fact, I become the host. When you die, I'm becoming you._

_Now that I know, I'm gonna do everything in my power to stay alive._

_I'd like to see you try. _

Manic felt frantic anger build up in him. He started thinking of possible ways he could stay alive, but he didn't know how he was going to die. If he was lucky, he was just going to be hung. But, he couldn't tell for sure.

Then he heard and knock on his door. Who would want to visit him now?

"Come in."

He was pretty happy when he saw Blaze come strolling in.

"Hi Manic."

"Hey."

"Umm, I really don't know what to say." She sat down next to him.

"How come they never took me into custody?"

"They blocked off all the exits instead." They sat there in silence for a few minutes.

Manic broke the silence, "I need to tell you something. But you can't tell anybody."

"What is it?"

"I'm gonna try and get out of Knothole. Now before you go and suspect that I'm a coward, I need you to listen to my reason."

"Go ahead."

"When Sonic made me go through the tests, the dark chaos energy released an evil spirit in my body. It keeps trying to kill anybody that I'm close to, he's the reason that I almost killed Sonic. A few minutes ago he contacted me. He said that when I die, he is going to become _me._"

Blaze was a little confused, "I guess it makes enough sense, but Manic, you can't break out of Knothole. All the exits have guards posted at them."

"Who said that we need to stay at ground level? The sky is the limit Blaze." With that, Manic got up and headed towards his backyard.

Blaze followed him, "Where are you going?"

"You'll see." _Now I wonder if it's still back here._ When he got outside he headed toward an object that was covered in a tarp. He pulled off the cloth which revealed a single-engine plane about the same size as the X-Tornado. In fact, it looked alot like the X-Tornado, except it was painted black.

Manic was filled with joy, "Oh yeah! I thought they would have taken this by now." He climbed inside and tested the engine. He pulled the keys out from the glove compartment and inserted them into the ignition. It started without a stutter.

Blaze yelled over the engine, "Where did you get this?"

"I built it."

"Really?"

Manic turned the plane off, "Well Tails helped me." He jumped down to the ground.

Blaze looked over to him, "Can I come with you?"

He never thought about that. He guessed that having Blaze around would keep him company.

"Sure."

"Great. When are we leaving?"

"Right now." He got back up in the ship.

Blaze jumped into the passenger seat, "That's fine with me, but there's only one problem."

"What's that?"

"We don't have enough room to take off."

"Don't worry about it." Manic pressed a button on the dashboard and the plane started moving upwards from two propellers that sprouted from the bottom of the wings. When they were high enough, Manic turned on the main propeller and they flew straight out of Knothole.

"Goodbye Knothole!" Yelled Manic.

**I think this might be my longest chapter yet. Chapter 11 is coming soon!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11. I'm taking different adaptions from Sonic games and comics and putting them into this fic.**

"Where are we?" Asked Blaze.

Manic took a look around, "I think we're in Empire City, but I'm not sure."

"Empire City? I thought this place would be ruled by Eggman by now."

"Well Empire City actually has a good enough army to fight off his robots. Let's see if we can find a good enough place to land." Manic flew the plane over different spots of the city untill Manic finally found an open spot on the street where absolutely no one was. In fact, neither Manic or Blaze saw anybody in the city whatsoever.

Manic touched the vehicle down on the pavement and slowly got out, Blaze did the same. They crept down the deserted streets.

"Where is everybody?" Asked Blaze.

"I really have no idea." Manic led the way until they got to the town hall. When they entered they found that it was empty too. They checked all the rooms and still no one was to be found. The last room that wasn't checked was the Mayor's office, but when they got inside they saw a horrifying sight.

Inside was the Mayor being bound and gagged. Surrounding him were a couple of masked anthros, one with a gun to the Mayor's head. The second attacker ripped the tape off his mouth.

He whispered in the Mayor's ear, "So are you gonna give us the combo to the bank vault? Or are we gonna have to cut your left eye out?"

Manic had enough of this, "Hey, let the Mayor go."

The anthro with the gun waved it at Manic, "Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do about it?"

At that moment Manic saw a ball of fire hit the unarmed dog as a distraction. Manic used the confusion to break the other dog's arm and steal the gun.

While the dog was writhing in pain, Manic asked him a few questions, "What are you doing here? And why is the town deserted?"

"We're here to collect profits."

"You mean rob the city."

"Yes. As for the disappearance of the citizens, I guess we scared them off."

"Well where are the guards or the army?"

"This city's army ain't crap. They might be able to fight off a few robots, but not an organization of other anthros. When we took this place over, we made an agreement with Eggman that we wouldn't let the citizens retake control, and he would leave us alone. What do you say about that?"

Manic pulled back the hammer of the 44. "Great. Now I want you out of the city before I blow your brains out all over the floor. Got it?"

The assailant got up, "Fine, but there are more of us in the city. By the way, I want my magnum back."

"Too bad."

With that the thief ran off. Manic and Blaze walked over to the Mayor and untied his hands from behind his back. The horse stood up and rubbed his wrists, "Thank you."

Blaze asked the next question, "How did this happen?"

"I don't know. One minute I'm sitting at my desk signing papers, the next thing I know I'm being questioned and held against my will. And now they've invaded the city."

Manic broke in, "Do you need help clearing them out?"

"Why yes. I could use the help. And as a reward, I will give you each $10,000 dollers. How does that sound?"

Manic thought to himself. _I could use the money for food and weapons. If I'm going to keep this gun I'm gonna need a holster._

Manic made up his mind, "That sounds just fine. Thank you." Blaze and Manic exited the building.

Manic was facinated at Blaze's powers, "That was pretty cool how you shot that fireball at that one guy."

She looked suprised, "Thanks. That was my curse that I was talking about."

"I still wouldn't say that that is a curse."

"Well you can call it whatever you want."

They walked the deserted streets for hours now and no more gang members were to be found.

Blaze sighed, "I think we should give up Manic. There's no one here."

"Maybe your righ-." Manic heard an unusual sound of an engine growing louder and louder. He turned around to find a pickup truck full of some gang member powerslide to a stop in front of them.

One of them spoke up, "Well look at what we have here?" They all slowly got out of the pickup each with a different weapon.

The tallest one came to the front of the group, resembling a leader. He walked up to Blaze and smiled, "You're pretty cute. Why don't you hop into the truck and I'll make you feel real good."

Manic's eyes slowly turned to Blaze, who surprisingly wasn't doing anything. Then the linx turned to Manic and got serious, "Hope you don't plan on defending your girl boy, or else my friends might have to teach you a lesson for resisting."

Manic stared at him and smiled, "She can fend for herself." The linx laughed in his face. Then turned back to Blaze who had already formed a fireball that scorched him and sent him soaring into a wall.

He writhed in pain, "Boys, get him!" Then he died.

They charged at them with full force. Most of them went for Manic because they were intimidated by Blaze. Manic pulled out the 44. and shot the one in the front of the pack in the heart. He noticed that since he was using a revolver, he only had five shots left. He started counting them down.

The smallest of the group started swinging a baseball bat at Blaze, who easily dodged it and roundhouse kicked him in the head. Meanwhile, Manic was surviving as onslaught of three brutes. His adrenaline kicked in and time seemed to slow down around him. He shot the closest one in the head, four bullets left. He swung around and pistolwhiped the one right behind him, killing him instantly. Then the last one, outfitted with a katana sword, took a sharp swing at Manic leaving a bloody scar on his chest.

Manic growled as the pain set in. Out of pure anger he dashed at the enemy and jammed his thumbs into both of his eyes, killing him. Manic wiped the blood off of his gloves on ground.

He turned around and faced Blaze, who was completely shocked, "I need help." He collapsed to the ground with Blaze wondering if he meant that emotionally or physically. Possibly both?

The first thing Manic noticed was the pain when he woke up the next morning. He wasn't in a hospital, he was actually laying down on a couch in the middle of a living room. He tried to sit up and view his surroundings, but the pain was too intense. So he just lay there until someone found him.

About five minutes later someone walked into the room and gave Manic a couple of pills.

He resisted at first, "What are these?"

"Painkillers. You might want them."

Manic took the pills and examined his wound, it was completely clean and stitched up. The figure turned on a nearby lamp to reaveal Blaze.

She looked disappointed, "You didn't have to kill them."

Manic rolled his eyes, "If I didn't, they would have cause more harm."

"Whatever."

Manic found the energy to sit up and look around, "Where are we?"

"We're in an house that was abandoned in the invasion. It was the closest building to us."

Manic layed back down and closed his eyes. He wasn't sure if he made the right decision to kill the man.

Ashura decided to drop in, _Well looks like you've commited you first murder in two years. Congratulations!_

_Shut up._

_Well then. I still think your friend is really cute. You should ask if she's a virgin._

_Screw you!_

_Fine. Be that way. But I'm feeling quite generous today, so i'm gonna give you a heads up. I'm almost possitive that Sonic and the rest are coming to look for you._

_Why do you think that?_

_I'm pretty sure that they noticed you didn't make it to your exacution. They're obviously aware that something happened to you._

_I'd hate to say it, but your're right._

_Like always. Goodbye Manic._

Manic opened his eyes and sat up. He noticed that Blaze wasn't sitting next to him like she was before.

He called out, "Hey Blaze! Where you at?"

She came trotting into the living room where he was at and piped out, "Yeah Manic?"

"I think that Sonic and everyone else might be looking for us. If they find me, they're gonna drag me back to Knothole and kill me. Or they are gonna just kill me on the spot."

"You're right. We should get out of here and get to a different town or city somewhere else."

"Well let's go."

Manic and Blaze headed out and found the plane just a few blocks away. When they started piling in, the Mayor shouted, "Wait, I have your reward!"

He threw up two wads of $10,000 dollers. Manic handed one to Blaze and he started the engine.

Manic waved down, "Thanks."

The Mayor waved them off. Manic turned to Blaze and yelled, "Where you wanna go?"

She smiled, "I heard that Apotos is nice this time of year."

"I know where that is." Manic made a perfect u-turn and headed north. But what they didn't know is that Eggman had been following them the whole time.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 is here.**

Apotos was just in the horizon. After 6 hours of travel, Manic and Blaze had gotten pretty tired and Manic had already almost fallen asleep while flying.

They found a very convenient dock that was thankfully wide and long enough to land the plane on. Manic turned off the engine and crawled out followed by Blaze.

He spoke first, "Well, we're here. But we probably can't do anything at around midnight. Let's try and find a place to stay."

"That's a good idea. But whose gonna be awake at this hour? It's too late."

Manic smiled, "You really have no hope do you? Someone will be awake."

"Alright."

They wandered the streets, weaving through old structures and looking for "open" signs or anything that might resemble a hotel or some place to stay. Finally, they found a hotel that had one open room left.

The tall rabbit at the counter spoke in a stuck-up way, "Sorry but we only have a suite left and it doesn't look to me like you can afford it."

Manic was getting irritated, "How much?"

"$5,000 dollars."

Manic pulled out his wad of $10,000 dollars, counted, and handed the woman $5,000.

She looked surprised and handed Blaze the key, "Enjoy your stay."

Blaze chimed in, "Don't worry, we will." They took the elevator up to the top floor.

Manic spoke, "She wasn't the nicest person ever."

"I know. How long do we plan on staying here?"

"Well if I read the piece of paper on the counter right, we bought a room for $5,000 dollars. Which would normally give us a months worth of stay. But since we had to buy a suite, it only gives us 15 days."

"Well that should be enough time to observe the city and actually do something."

"Well just remember, we're mainly here to escape my death."

"I know." They got to the top floor and found their room which was way bigger than either of them imagined. It had a king-sized bed and a hot tub in the same room. Off to the left was a bathroom that had a giant bathtub, a shower, two sinks and crystal clear mirror. There was also a flat screen T.V. 9 feet from the foot of the bed.

Manic sighed, "I could get used to this."

Blaze stood wide-eyed, "Wow. I'm actually glad you bought a suite."

"Me too."

Manic walked over to the left side of the bed and took a load off. Blaze sat down on the other side.

She spoke up, "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go take a shower."

Manic's muffled voice called out, "Have fun."

"Are you going to take one when I'm done?"

He sat up, "I probably should. But let me go last cause I take long showers."

"Okay, I take them pretty fast. Just don't come in."

Manic was surprised, "There's probably a lock on the door."

"Yeah but I heard that you can pick locks."

"You have nothing to worry about."

Blaze disappeared into the bathroom and Manic fell back down on the bed. He started thinking to himself, _I wonder of any of them are looking for us._

**MEANWHILE**

"So what are we gonna do when we find him?" Asked a now fully recovered Sonic.

"Well, he skipped out on his execution. So that means that we still need to kill him. So if we find him, I guess we'll have to kill him right there." Responded Knuckles.

Sonic let out a sigh, "I hope that it doesn't have to come to that."

Tails came trotting up from his house, "The X-Tornado is ready. We should go."

Knuckles directed his attention to him, "Do you have any idea where he is?"

"His plane has a built in tracking device, so we can find him with this." Tails pulled out a small cube that had a black screen with a blinking radar.

Sonic looked closely, "No dots are popping up Tails."

Tails threw down the cube, "Dammit."

"What's wrong?" Asked Knuckles.

"I think I forgot to sync the cube with the tracking device while we were building the plane. Now there's no way to find him."

Sonic touched his medallion, "There is another way."

"How?"

"Whenever I'm close to either Manic or Sonia, my medallion starts to glow."

Knuckles spoke up, "So all we have to do is blindly fly around until your necklace lights up?"

"Basically."

"Alright."

Tails headed back towards his lab, "Well come on, let's do this."

**BACK AT THE HOTEL**

Blaze walked out of the steam filled bathroom and found Manic asleep on the bed. She smiled and flopped down on the other side of the bed. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to overtake her.

The next day, Blaze woke up with the sound of someone knocking on the door and saying "Breakfast."

Blaze got up and unlocked the door. The lady came in with a tray full of waffles, bacon, eggs, and other breakfast essentials. The lady set the tray down on a bi-pod that was strapped to her waist.

Blaze spoke up, "Uh, we didn't order this."

"You didn't, your boyfriend did."

Blaze was a little surprised, "Oh, he's not my boyfriend."

"Alright." Then she left.

Blaze only picked at the food. It wasn't that she wasn't hungry, it was probably because she had a lot on her mind. They had to save a mayor, they got jumped by gang members, and Manic had already killed a few people.

There was a clicking sound coming from the door, and Manic came in.

He noticed the food, "I see the food got here."

"Yeah. But I'm not really hungry."

"Well I'm not either. I just thought you might be."

"Nope. What were you doing so early in the morning?"

"Just scoping out the area."

Blaze spoke almost sarcastically, "Really, like what."

Manic smiled, "You're acting like I just robbed a bank."

"Well it's not that far out of your reach."

He laughed, "Why thank y-." Manic was cut short by a loud explosion that emitted from the front entrance. They both rushed down to the lobby and found that a big hole had been blown through the wall.

Manic glanced at the bloody corpse in the corner that used to be the bitchy chick at the counter. He and Blaze watched as a black hedgehog walked through the gaping hole.

Manic instantly recognized him, "Shadow."

He spoke in a deep voice, "Hello Manic."

"So, why'd you blow a hole in the wall? You could have walked in and asked for me."

"Dramatic entrance. But that's not the point right now. I heard that you skipped out on your execution."

"So? What do you care?"

"I don't. I just want you to know that I'm going to take you back to Knothole."

"And why is that?"

"Because you're the one that stole those two chaos emeralds from me."

"I didn't steal them. I took them back."

"Whatever. All I know is, you're coming with me. Dead or alive."

"You're gonna have to make me."

"Fine." Shadow dashed at Manic with incredible speed. Unfortunately for Shadow, Manic knew that he was going to do this and parried his attack by grabbing one of his quills as soon as he passed, and launched him into a wall.

Blaze was too stunned to even help Manic. She knew that this was his fight and didn't want to intervene. Besides, it was clear that this wasn't his first fight with Shadow.

Shadow threw a chaos spear at Manic, which impaled him through the stomach. Manic proceeded to pull the the spear out of his abdomen, growling the whole time. When it was out, he hurled it back at Shadow, who simply sidestepped it.

Shadow smirked, "I admire your attempts to defeat me, but you're going to have to try harder. And by the looks of that wound," he gestured towards the open hole in his gut. "You won't have the energy or time to do that."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"What?" Blaze kicked him in the back of the head, which made him lose his guard. Manic ran up, grabbed Shadow by the neck, and choke-slammed him.

Manic yelled at him, "Why are you trying to take me back you son of a bitch!" Ashura screamed in the back of Manic's head. _Kill him!_

Shadow just smiled, "Chaos Control!" He vanished into thin air.

Manic cursed and covered his wound, "I need to get to a doctor."

**I think that was a pretty solid chapter. Remember, keep reviewing!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello. Chapter 13.**

Manic could here the police sirens blaring in the distance. Blaze turned to him, "We need to get out of here."

"Got it. But if we do run, we should probably try and find a doctor." He and Blaze started toward the back entrance and found it locked.

"It's locked." Yelled Blaze.

Manic growled, "I don't have time for this." He spartan kicked the door off it's hinges. "Come on."

They ran out into the the street in search for anything or anybody that might help them find a hospital. Luckily, they found an old tailor shop across the street. They made a dash for the door.

Manic walked up to the old lady at the register. He wondered how she didn't hear the explosion across the street, maybe she was hearing impaired?

"Do you know where the nearest hospital is?"

"Of course I do. It's right across town from here... What happened to your stomach?"

"Car accident. Do you know what the address or the road is?"

"I'm sorry, but no one goes to that side of town anymore. I'm not sure of the road."

Manic sighed, "Okay, thanks anyway."

Blaze walked up to him, "We need to go."

Manic didn't even realize that the cops had closed in on the shop. Before they could even react, two policemen barged through the doors.

They pulled out their guns and yelled, "Freeze!"

As they put their hands up, Blaze whispered to Manic, "Great, how are we gonna get out of this one?"

"We better not fight, we might get into more trouble than we can handle."

The cops handcuffed and threw Manic and Blaze into the cop car.

Manic whispered, "Perfect, just freaking perfect."

Blaze tried calming him down, "Don't worry. We didn't do anything wrong."

He emptied his lungs, "Alright."

"Just relax and we'll explain our side of the story when we get to wherever we're going."

They sat in silence for a moment, watching the scenery. Finally, the car stopped, and the cops got out and pulled Manic and Blaze out. They had arrived at a small Sheriff's Office. When they entered, it was nothing more than one jail cell and a desk with a few papers on it. The cops shoved them in the cell.

One of them said, "When the Sheriff gets here he's gonna question you two about the explosion at the hotel. Then he'll find if you're innocent or guilty."

The two cops then left and Manic found a spot in a corner to sit down. Blaze sat down next to him, "What are we going to do now?"

"The only thing we can do, wait and hope that the Sheriff brings a doctor."

After 20 minutes the Sheriff still hadn't shown up, and Blaze had fallen asleep. Manic felt some pressure on his arm, it was Blaze. She was leaning on his shoulder. He started blushing. She smelled really nice despite of all the days activities. His heart rate increased and a small smile appeared across his face.

Ashura popped into Manic's head. _She's really cute._

_I know._

_And that gives me one more reason to kill her._

_That won't happen._

_We'll see._

Manic opened his eyes. He heard the door open and the Sheriff walked in. Manic lightly shook Blaze to wake her up. When she did, they walked up to the cell door.

The Sheriff spoke in a country accent, "Heard that you two caused some problems down at that hotel. Killed that there lady that works at the counter."

"No we didn't. We heard the explosion while me and my friend were up in our room. We had nothing to do with the explosion." Explained Blaze.

"Oh really? Well who was it then?" He said sarcastically.

"A hedgehog named Shadow. Look, can you let us go? I need to get to a doctor." He motioned toward his wound.

"Sorry, but the only hospital in town is in a bad area, and it's already been taken over by gangs."

"Well could you still let us go?" Asked Blaze.

"I can't until we get all the evidence we need to prove your innocence." With that, the Sheriff walked out of the office and locked the door.

Manic started looking around. Blaze noticed and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Looking for a way out of here."

They started frantically looking around. Just then, Manic remembered his earth control power.

"Hey Blaze, I just remembered something. I can just tear through these metal bars."

"Okay well do it."

Manic started to tear through the bars, but as he did it a horrible pain ripped through his body. Blaze ran up to him, "What's wrong?"

"...My side." Manic pointed at his wound.

"Here, I can deal with the bars if you want me to."

"Go ahead."

Blaze shot a ball of fire at the door, which melted the bars. She then grabbed Manic's hand, "Come on."

"Well where do you plan on going? There's no hospitals in this city."

"I think I know a way I can help. But it's gonna hurt."

"It can't be that bad."

**MEANWHILE**

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were flying around in the X-Tornado.

Sonic yelled down to Tails, "Hey Tails, which city is that?"

"I think it's Empire City. We should probably land and ask if they've seen Manic or Blaze."

Tails landed the plane on an empty street. They all hopped out and headed towards the Town Hall. When they walked in, they went through another set of doors and saw the Mayor sitting at his desk working on some papers.

Knuckles spoke up, "Excuse me, have you seen a green hedgehog with wild hair and a couple of earrings?"

He looked up, "Yes I have actually. He was here a few days ago. He helped rid the town of some gangs, but he killed a few of them in the process. He also had a female, bluish colored cat with him."

"He killed some people? That doesn't sound like Manic. Yet again, he almost killed me." Said Sonic.

"How many times do I have to tell you Sonic, Manic was being controlled by the dark chaos energy in his body." Said Tails.

Knuckles was getting irritated, "Can we discuss this some other time?" Then he looked back at the Mayor. "Do you know where he went?"

"No, but by the direction he was flying he could have gone to Apotos."

"Alright thanks. Come on guys."

The trio headed back to the plane.

"So we're going to Apotos?" Asked Tails.

"Apparently." Said Knuckles.

Sonic spoke next, "Well let's go!"

**BACK TO MANIC AND BLAZE**

Blaze had led the half-disoriented Manic back to the dock where they landed the plane. She explained what he had to do.

"Alright Manic, I need you to lay down on your back."

"Uh, alright." He did as he was told. Blaze then got on her knees next to him. She then placed her left hand on the hole in his torso. Her other hand the held Manic's hand with.

This confused him, "Why are you holding my hand?"

"I'm doing this because I want you to squeeze my hand if the pain get's to the point where you can't stand it."

"Alright."

"Get ready." Manic felt Blaze's left hand heat up rapidly. He knew instantly what she was going to do, she was gonna seal the wound shut. The pain was bearable, but only a little. Manic clenched his teeth as burning increased. Blaze hated having to do this to him, but she had no choice.

Manic felt as if he was being torn in half. He growled, "How much longer?"

"Maybe another 15 seconds. Do you want me to stop?"

"No, just finish." Manic squeezed Blaze's hand out of sheer reflex.

"Okay, I'll stop..."

"NO, it's just reflex. Finish it!" Manic felt as if his soul was being burned alive. Blaze couldn't stand to see him like this.

Finally, Manic's wound was sealed.

He could hardly talk, "S-see, that w-wasn't so bad." He noticed that he was still holding Blaze's hand.

He let go, "Sorry."

Her voice was a tiny bit shaky, "Oh uh, that's okay." She hugged Manic out of relief.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Again, Manic felt that nice feeling.

"You weren't gonna lose me that easily."

Blaze kept hugging Manic like she would never see him again. Right now, he was her only friend. They remained in that position for a couple minutes before she finally let go.

Manic smiled at her, "You're acting like I was gonna die."

"Well the last person I performed that on died in front of me."

"Oh." It was just killing him how beautiful she is. His emotions were torturing him.

Manic suddenly noticed a huge black shadow appear from behind the clouds. He stood up to get a closer look, and of course, it was Eggman's ship.

"That fat son of a bitch!" Exclaimed Manic.

**Chapter 13 is done. I'm liking the Manic and Blaze pairing so far. Keep those reviews coming.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14. I'm gonna try and fit some romance into this one.**

Blaze stood up next to Manic, "He's either going to destroy the city, or just come here for you. Maybe both."

"Do you think he's been following us?" Asked Manic.

"If he's just here for you, than probably."

"Dammit." Manic jumped into the plane followed by Blaze.

"What are we gonna do?"

"The only thing we can do, stop him."

"You can't fight in the condition you're in."

"But I can't let Eggman destroy the city. And besides, I'd rather die trying to stop him." Manic started the engine and took off.

Manic landed on the pad on the top of the ship. He and Blaze slowly got out, careful not to get spotted. They found a set of stairs that had a sign next to it that said "Cockpit". Manic and Blaze took the stairs which led to a long hallway. At the end of the hallway was the door that separated them and Eggman.

Blaze put her ear up to the door, "I can hear Eggman talking to someone."

Manic then put his ear to the door, and this is what he heard. "All we have to do is destroy the city until that hedgehog or his girlfriend show his or her face. Then we can choose to either kill them or roboticize them."

Manic took his ear off the door, "Let's just go in there and kick some ass."

"But Manic you don't know who else is in there."

"Who cares? You and me are unstoppable if we work together."

Blaze sighed, "Alright. Let's do it."

Manic swung the door open and saw Eggman, Rouge, and Shadow.

Eggman laughed, "Well well well, look who it is. I guess finding them was easier than we thought."

Rouge walked up to Manic, "Well it's been a while. I thought I'd never see you again."

Manic was already pissed with her, "Shut up."

She then looked at Blaze, "Look like you've found yourself a groupie. How did a scumbag like you ever find a beautiful girl like her?"

Blaze stood up for Manic, "Don't talk about him like that!"

Rouge walked up to her, "Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do about it?" Blaze punched her in the face. Rouge then got mad and retaliated with a kick to the stomach.

Manic went to help Blaze, but Shadow grabbed him by the throat and pinned him against the ground. Manic used his free hand to punch him across the jaw. Shadow reeled from the punch which gave Manic the chance to leg sweep him to the floor. While he was down, Manic grabbed Shadow's leg and swung him around into the wall.

Manic smirked, "You've really lost your edge Shadow. You'd usually be able to kick my ass."

Shadow staggered toward him, "It's not me who's lost his edge, it's your new enhanced body strength from the procedures three years ago."

"I really doubt that."

"What are you trying to say?"

"After the procedures, something in me snapped. From that point on, I was no longer the "not give a crap" Manic that you remember. I'm a person that doesn't care for my own life, but will give it for the people I care for. Especially her." Manic nodded towards Blaze.

"Well I understand where you're coming from. I once had someone very significant in my life. But she's gone now."

All of a sudden, a loud siren started blaring, and all fighting ceased. Rouge exclaimed, "What's going on?"

Eggman started working on his computers, "Our first engine has been destroyed!"

Manic felt a gust of wind rush past him followed by a familiar blue streak. The hedgehog attacked Eggman and threw him to the ground.

Sonic called out to him, "The ship's going down! Get Blaze and go!"

Manic and Blaze hurried out of the cockpit and headed up the set of stairs that led to the landing pad. Manic noticed Knuckles and Tails in the X-Tornado.

Tails yelled at them, "Guys, get in your plane and go."

Blaze yelled back, "But what about Sonic?"

"He'll get here."

Manic and Blaze hopped into Manic's plane and left as fast as they could.

Blaze called up, "That was very unusual. They just help us and tell us to go."

"I know."

Blaze and Manic flew for about 5 minutes before Tails caught up with them.

"Guys, you need to follow us back to Knothole!" Said Knuckles.

"And why the hell would we do that?" Yelled back Manic.

"Because you're supposed to be executed. And if it can't happen there, than we'll have to kill you any chance that Sonic, Tails, or myself get."

Manic thought for a moment, "I think I'll choose any chance you guys get." Manic sped up the plane.

Sonic hadn't said a word the whole time. Finally he did, "Are we gonna chase them or what?"

"No. Let's let them have one more day to live." Said Tails.

Manic flew until he started running out of gas. Luckily, there was a small island not too far from them. Manic landed the plane in a clearing.

Blaze got out first, "Well this isn't good. How are we supposed to get anywhere without a plane in the middle of the ocean?"

"I have no idea. Just give me a little time to think."

Blaze walked off, "Well I'm gonna try and find something useful. Like food."

"Alright."

Blaze walked into another clearing that wasn't too far from the one Manic was at. She walked into the middle of what looked like a crop circle. In the middle was a weird symbol that looked like three rings connected to each other that had two at the bottom, and one on the top. Blaze knelt down and touched the palm of her hand on it. All of a sudden, it lit up, and the ground started to shake.

Manic came rushing to where she was, "What's going on?"

"I don't know, I just touched the symbol that was on the ground!"

"What symbol?"

"The one in the middle of the crop circle."

Manic walked up to the now glowing symbol. He noticed a small hole slowly forming in the middle of it. He stepped back as a long staff, about as tall as him, coming out of the hole. Finally the ground stopped shaking, and the staff just sat upright in the ground.

"What is it for?" Asked Blaze.

"I have no idea." Manic grabbed at the staff which was surprisingly light considering it's length.

Blaze started walking away, "We'd better leave that here. Who knows what it can do."

"You're right." Manic stuck the staff back in the ground.

3 hours had passed, and Manic and Blaze managed to gather six coconuts, four apples, and a couple of oranges. It was getting late, so they started making a fire. It wasn't hard, giving the fact that Manic could just tear pieces of trees off and Blaze could just light it on fire. When it was started, they just sat there, taking in the heat.

Finally, Blaze broke the silence, "Manic?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

Manic opened his eyes, "That's a very unusual question. But no. I never really cared about girls or love back then."

"Why not?"

"Because I was always on the run. I never had the time to get to know them."

"Oh."

"Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?"

"I used to. But I could never control my powers, and one day it showed."

"And it scared him away?"

"Pretty much."

Manic got closer to the fire, "That shouldn't restrict you from having a love life."

Blaze's tone got louder, "You don't get it do you?"

"Get what?"

"If I have a love life, eventually that person is going to find out what I am."

"Blaze, you're not a monster. You're just like the rest of us."

Blaze stood up and walked near the ocean. Then she turned around, and Manic was shocked with what he saw. Blaze's eyes had turned completely red, along with the rest of her body. She lifted up into the air and an aura of fire started to surround her body.

She yelled down, "This is what I am Manic! A damn weapon! Do you understand what I could do if my curse got out of control? I could literally set the world ablaze!"

Manic walked up to where she was floating. Her body slowly turned back to normal, and she came back down to the ground.

Blaze spoke in a shaky voice, "That's why I can't have a good relationship with anyone. My true self eventually comes to the surface."

Manic saw as a single tear came down her cheek. She started hugging him tightly.

"I want you to know that you'll never scare me away. No matter what." Manic's heart rate increased rapidly as Blaze kissed him. It lasted for maybe 10 seconds, but for Manic, it lasted for forever.

Blaze then released from their embrace, "Thank you."

**Boom bitch! I actually liked this chapter, mainly cause it contained my first romantic scene. Even though it was corny. Review!**


	15. Chapter 15

Manic woke up in a daze. The visions of what happened the night before kept playing back in his head, always ending with Blaze kissing him. And over and over again, he loved it. Manic sat up and noticed that Blaze was standing near the ocean. Then she turned around and morphed into a hedgehog that looked like him. Only he had spiked gloves and black quills.

He spoke, _You see how easy it is to fool you Manic?_

_Ashura? What the hell's going on?_

_You're dreaming. This is my way of physically talking to you._

_Well what do you want?_

_I think that you're doing a fantastic job of keeping me under control. But one slip-up, and I will come to light again. And when I do, I will kill Her first._

_You keep on saying that._

_I just want to remind you, so that when it happens, you won't be surprised. Goodbye._

Manic's eyes snapped open. It was still dark outside, and he guessed it was maybe 4:00am. He turned his head and saw Blaze with her arms wrapped around Manic's waist. He smiled and went back to sleep.

The following morning, Manic woke up to Blaze shaking him, "Manic, wake up."

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, "Hey, what's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

"About last night."

"What about last night?"

"It was kinda crazy. I mean, with me showing you my true form."

"It was. But it ended nicely."

She blushed, "Yeah, I guess it did."

"Why did you end up kissing me?"

Blaze put her hands in her lap, "I guess because what you said made me feel like you really cared about me."

"I do. More than you might know."

"What do you mean?"

"Huh? Uh, did I say that out loud?"

"Yeah. Is there something you wanna talk about?"

"Maybe when the time is right." Manic stood up, "Right now, I want to go examine that staff."

Manic started walking off. Blaze thought to herself, _You're very strange Manic. _She caught up with Manic, who had already made it to the staff.

He took it out of the ground, "There has to be a reason why this is here."

"Maybe there is no reason."

"Maybe..." Manic stomped his foot on the ground, and a hollow sound came from it.

Blaze's ear twitched, "What was that?"

"I'm guessing that there's something below us." Manic and Blaze started digging, and digging. Eventually, they made a small hole in the ground. They proceeded to dig until the hole was big enough for both of them to fit through.

Manic squinted, "It's too dark."

Blaze stuck out her hand, "Let me see what I can do." Her hand caught on fire and she lit up the hole, which revealed a steel room. The floor was about eight feet below where they were.

Blaze hopped in, "Let's go."

Manic smiled and followed. In front of them was a steel door with a rotating wheel that opened it.

"Where do you think it leads?" Asked Blaze.

"We're about to find out." Manic walked up and opened the door. It led to a humungous room that contained a large ball in the center. Surrounding it were a bunch of houses and families. It looked like a futuristic version of Knothole.

"What is this place?" Asked Blaze mesmerized.

An old man walked up, "This is our fine city, Atreytile."

"Who are you?" Asked Manic.

"I'm the mayor of this fine city. I'm surprised that you found us. We haven't had visitors in a while. Would you mind if I showed you around?"

"That would be nice." Said Blaze.

The Mayor started to walk down the hill, "Great, just follow me and-" He noticed the staff that Manic was holding, "Where did you find that?"

Manic held it up, "It came up from the ground on the surface, that's where we're from."

"That's a very valuable piece of equipment. It is the last piece to the Fortune Teller in the center of Atreytile. Come, follow me." He started heading down the hill towards the big ball in the center of the city, with Manic and Blaze following close behind. There were families left and right, either eating or watching them. When they made it to the Fortune Teller, Manic noticed a pedestal in front of it. On top of it was a hole.

The mayor turned around, "Okay, just put the staff into the hole and you'll have the pleasure of being the first to try out our Fortune Teller."

"Okay." Manic sighed. He did as he was told and walked up and put the staff into the hole. When he did, the whole ball lit up a fiery green color. He, as the rest of the people who gathered around, was amazed at what he was seeing.

The Mayor walked up to him, "Now all you have to do is go up and place both hands on it, and it will tell your future."

"Alright." Manic placed his hands on the glowing ball. All of a sudden, he started seeing flashing colors in his vision. Then the colors faded to black. After a few seconds, the darkness faded away, and he saw himself staring down a monster. This monster took the shape of a dragon, but it had two wings connected to each side of it's body like a dragonfly. It had glowing white eyes and seven razor sharp spikes connected to it's tail. On top of it's head were eight horns the size of Manic's arms.

He looked around and saw that he was with Sonic, Blaze, and Knuckles. They were all in a grassy, open plane.

The dragon opened it's strong jaws and dove at them. Then, Manic snapped back into reality. Everyone was looking at him silently, waiting to see what he was going to say.

Manic, still shaken up, turned back to the Mayor, "It works."

Everyone let out cheers, except Blaze, who noticed Manic nervousness.

He tried to yell out over the cries to the mayor, "Do you have any gas!"

"Sure, follow me!"

The mayor led Manic and Blaze to generator, probably to power all the lights, that had a few jugs of gas next to it. He looked at them, "Take em' all if you need them. We have a storage shelter full of them."

"Thanks." Said Blaze. They started grabbing as much jugs as they could carry, and walked back to the door where they came from. When they got there, Manic set down his jugs of gas and tried to open it, but it was locked.

"What the hell?" Strained Manic.

"What's wrong?" Asked Blaze.

"The freaking wheel won't budge." Manic tried and tried, but nothing happened.

Suddenly, out of the shadows came a little boy about Tails' age wearing a blue hat and overalls. "The door only open from the outside. That's why we're all stuck in here. We all have come upon the ladder that leads down here."

"Is there any way to get out?" Asked Blaze.

"You can try any way possible. Just don't hurt yourself." With that, the kid disappeared. Manic gripped the door with his powers and ripped it off. They made their way to the up the ladder, tossing the gas up first. They could hear screams coming from the hole, the people probably finding out that the door was open.

"We'd better hurry and fill up the plane before those people start coming." Said Manic.

"Right." They got to the plane and filled it with gas. Then they hopped in and took off, leaving a crowd of joyful people behind them.

Manic frowned, "Why are they so happy? They live on a tiny island."

"I don't know." Blaze looked at Manic and remembered something. "Hey Manic?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you look so nervous after you used the Fortune Teller?"

"I saw a huge dragon like creature that you, me, Sonic, and Knuckle might have to fight later on."

"That's not good."

"You think it would show me something good in my future. I guess not."

"Well where do we go now?"

"Let's just fly and see what happens."

"Sounds good."

**This chapter isn't the best, but I needed something to write about. And this chapter is kind of a "bridge" to the next one.**

**Review!**


	16. Chapter 16

"We've been flying around for hours. When are we gonna stop?" Complained Blaze. They had been flying around for a long time. There was no sight of land anywhere.

"As soon as we can find some land, we'll land. Until then, we have to keep flying." Manic was getting sort of tired. It had been a long day. They had found a secret colony, Manic saw his future, and then they freed the people from the underground city.

Manic touched his wound where Blaze had sealed it the day before, it was still sensitive. As they kept flying, Manic finally saw a coastline. He called back, "We've got land."

"Finally. Do you know what it is? Like what it's called?"

Manic squinted his eyes. In the distance he could see a couple of buildings, then he saw a giant, stone pyramid. There was also a city surrounding it.

"I think that's...Mobotropolis." Manic was tempted to turn around, but he needed his "people" to see that he was alive. After all, he was still their Prince.

"Well let's land." Said Blaze.

"Okay..." Manic flew around and around but he couldn't find a big enough area. He made the decision to land on top of a building that luckily had enough space to land on. He cut the engine and made his way toward the edge of the building. He leaned over and just watched the people walk by.

Blaze joined him, "What are you looking for?"

"Not really anything. I'm just trying to remember what it was like here. But I can't."

"You've been here before?"

"Yes. I used to live here before my Mom was forced to give us up. I came here again after we were reunited with her. So this is my third time here." Manic spotted a pole that connected to the side of the building. "Let's use that to get to ground level. It's faster."

Manic ran towards the pole and slid to the ground. Blaze copied him and they walked out into the street. With Manic's luck, no one really noticed him. Except for one person.

A man from a shop yelled, "Well if it isn't Prince Manic Hedgehog."

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"I'm the weapons dealer. Is there anything you might need?"

Manic followed the man into the shop, "Actually, yes."

The man went behind the counter and pulled out a gauntlet. "This is a valuable piece of equipment. This gauntlet stops at the middle of your forearm, and it has sharp tips at the ends of each finger to make climbing easier."

"Can I try it out?"

"Sure." Manic slipped the gauntlet onto his left hand, which fit perfectly despite still wearing his glove. He balled his hands into fists a couple times. It took a little more pressure to do it, but nothing intense.

He smiled, "It's nice. But how much does it cost?"

"$20,000."

"Damn. How bout I trade you the gun."

"A firearm for a gauntlet? That would be kind of a loss on your part."

"Trust me, I don't need a gun. If anything I'm more into CQC."

"Alright." The man took the 44. and Manic walked out of the store with Blaze. Manic kept flexing his hand.

"You're really liking that thing aren't you?" Asked Blaze.

"Oh yeah. This thing is every thief's dream. It makes it way easier to climb walls and make easy getaways. It also makes fighting easier, so that when you're fighting at close quarters, you can deliver stronger punches. And the fingertips make it easy to kill someone if need be. This thing is awesome."

Manic's luck finally ran out. All of a sudden there was a yell from the crowd of people, "Hey, it's the Thief Prince!" Everyone started crowding around them. There were some cheers in the crowd, but the majority were boos.

"I think I remember why I left." Said Manic to Blaze.

"Maybe we should go." They turned around to leave.

"Hey where you goin'? You gonna leave us again? We'll then go you coward, and take that nice piece of ass with you!" The wolf who spat the words was following close behind them. Manic swung around and socked him across the jaw. While he was writhing in pain on the ground, Manic picked him up from around his neck.

"You don't every speak to me that way. And you sure as hell don't speak to my friend like that." Manic spoke in a calm tone.

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?" Manic punched him in the face again. And again.

Manic could hear Ashura as he was punishing the wolf, _Good Manic. Feed your anger._

Manic then felt himself being lifted up off the wolf. A big Anthro that toward over him had picked him up. He then was thrown into Blaze.

He helped her up, "You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine...Manic behind you!"

The rhino that had thrown him started barreling toward him. Manic jumped just in time and landed on top of him. Manic grabbed onto his horn and broke it off. While he was screaming in pain, Manic kicked him in the head and knocked him out.

"Blaze, start the plane and come and pick me up!"

"But I can't fly it!"

"Then get out of here, I don't want you to get hurt." Manic was fending off a crowd of angry citizens. One of them came at him with a wooden baseball bat, that Manic just grabbed and cracked it over the attackers head.

"Come on! I could take on you bitches all day! BRING IT ON!" Manic charged at the crowd at full speed. He used his gauntlet to clothesline an anthro. He started doing a chain of punches and kicks that were enough to hold them off.

Guards started swinging at him with their swords. Manic dodged every swing. Meanwhile, Blaze was fiddling with the airplane controls. She started pressing buttons unknowingly. Then she looked up and saw another plane heading her way. She instantly knew it was Sonic and the rest.

**MEANWHILE**

"Tails, I think that's Blaze down there!" Yelled Knuckles over the engine.

"I'll try to land next to her, then we can find Manic!" He called back. Tails directed the plane towards the rooftop that the other plane was on. He landed on what little space they had left. Tails cut the engine and they all piled out of the plane.

Sonic ran up to Blaze, "Where's Manic?"

"Uh, follow me!" Blaze took off, with Sonic and the gang following closely behind.

**BACK TO MANIC**

He was starting to get a little exhausted, but he continued to fight off the citizens and guards. "They just keep coming."

Manic then wanted to take a break, so he formed a rock dome over him. He dropped to his knees, then to his stomach. He lay there and didn't move, trying to regain his energy. He heard the people on the outside climbing on top of his dome, yelling at him to come out.

Finally Manic gained enough energy to let out one final attack on the citizens. He placed his hands on the insides of the dome, and concentrated all his power to blowing up it up. The semi-circle started shaking, then it shrunk. After a few more seconds, the whole thing exploded. Everyone who was within 20 feet of the explosion was crushed and killed by the g-force or flying chunks of rock.

Luckily, Manic wasn't injured, and neither were Blaze, Sonic, Tails or Knuckles who had just arrived on the scene.

Sonic spoke first, "Manic, what the hell did you do?"

Manic stood up, but something wasn't right about him. His crazy quills on the front of his head were jet black, and his right glove turned black and gained spikes on the knuckles.

He spoke, "Manic's not here at the moment. My name is Ashura."

**Uh oh. Looks like Manic screwed up and now Ashura has carried out his plan. Review!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Manic felt the sensation of something take over his body. He knew that he had gone too far, and now he'd have to pay the price.

_Ashura! No!_

_Yes! Finally, enough anger for me to arise! I knew you'd screw up sooner or later!_

_You can't do this! I won't let you hurt them!_

_Too late!_

Ashura turned to and snarled at Manic's group of friends, "Hello. It's very nice to meet you all."

Blaze yelled, "What did you do with Manic!"

"Oh, he's still here. On the inside." Ashura laughed at his comment.

"You better bring him back right now, or you'll be sorry!" Said Sonic.

"Hah! If anyone is going to be sorry, it'll be you." Ashura sprinted at Sonic and slashed him across the torso with the gauntlet. He screamed in pain as the blood seeped out between his fingers.

_Damn it, Ashura stop!_

_What are you gonna do? Nothing! You no longer have control over this body. You had your chance!_

Ashura continued to slash up Sonic with the razor sharp fingertips, laughing hysterically. Knuckles ran in and tried to help, but Ashura noticed him and lunged on top of him and broke his arm. He rolled over on his good arm, clutching his broken limb, groaning.

Ashura stood up and surveyed his work, "Anyone else?"

Blaze was completely horrified by the experience. How could one hedgehog take down Sonic and Knuckles with no effort at all? She slowly felt the rage and sorrow build up inside her.

She knelt down next to Tails, "Tails, I want you to get back to Knothole as fast as you can."

"B-but I want to help."

"Leave. I don't want you to get hurt."

Tails did as he was told and ran back to where he parked the plane. He was disappointed that he didn't get to help his friends, but he was also relieved that he didn't have to get hurt.

Ashura and Blaze stared each other down for a good couple of minutes before Ashura broke the ice.

He stated, "Hello Blaze. It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot of good thing about you from Manic."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Blaze spoke sternly.

"He said that you were the most beautiful girl he had ever met. Well, thought it. He also said that he'd like to, how should I put this, plow your beanfield." Ashura laughed again.

_Ashura! That's a lie and you know it!_

Blaze blushed, then she became embarrassed. She didn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. Why would Manic say that about her? Sadness and confusion took her over.

She spoke up, "You're lying! Why would he say something like that?"

"Hell if I know."

_Blaze! He's lying!_

_Shut up! She can't hear you._

Blaze then grew very angry, "You will bring Manic back right now!"

"Hah, sorry honey, he's gone. But now that all the talking is over, it's time for you to die!" Ashura lunged at Blaze with his gauntlet hand outstretched towards her. Blaze did her best to dodge roll away from him, but he still managed to slightly cut her cheek.

Blaze winced and shot fire in Ashura's direction. He dodged without trouble and continued with the barrage or slashes and stabs. Blaze put up a good fight, but was no match for Ashura. He was simply too fast for Blaze to hit. Eventually, Blaze made a wrong move. Ashura noticed this and jabbed the gauntlet into her stomach.

_Blaze!_

_What did I tell you Manic? I will rip everyone you love out of your life. Starting with her._

He ripped the claws out of her torso. Blaze fell backwards onto her back. She was still breathing, which was a relieve to Manic.

Ashura stood over Blaze, "Do you know what the best part about this whole thing is? That Manic gets to see me kill you. Any last words?"

Blaze rolled over and slowly stood up. She walked up to Ashura, "Manic, I know you can hear me. Please come back to us, to me. Listen to me, I need you to take back control of your body."

Ashura got mad and raised his hand to finish her off, but his arm stopped in mid-air.

_And what did I tell you Ashura? You're not gonna lay a finger on Blaze._

She watched as Manic turned back to his original form. He dropped to his knees and clutched his head. He had an unusual bubbling feeling in his stomach, like he had to throw up. He looked up and saw Blaze kneeling down in front of him, covering her wound with her hand.

"Blaze? Oh shit, we've got to get you to the hospital."

She didn't say anything. She just leaned over and kissed Manic.

"Thanks for saving me." Said Blaze.

"Well, uh, your welcome. But you're not saved yet." Manic looked over to his right and saw Sonic sit up.

"Ugh, what happened?" Said Sonic.

"I need to get you guys some help." Said Manic. He saw and heard Tails plane in the distance. He landed and got out.

"Hey Tails, I need some help here." Said Manic.

Blaze passed then passed out.

**5 HOURS LATER**

Tails and Manic talked about what would happen now that they were going back to Knothole. Sonic, Knuckles, and Blaze were tied onto the wings of the plane.

"Am I still gonna be executed?" Asked Manic.

"I don't know anymore Manic. The law says to, but maybe we could just charge you with manslaughter."

"Where does that leave me?"

"I don't know. A long time in jail. Oh, I know! Maybe we can take a vote."

"A vote on whether or not to send me to jail?"

"Yes. Most of the people in Knothole like you, so you have a likely chance of not going to jail."

"Now that I think about it, that's actually a great idea." Manic saw the giant tree on the horizon. As they got closer, Manic got a sinking feeling in his gut. What if he lost the vote? What the hell would he do in jail? He started to get nervous.

Tails finally made it to his base and landed on the helipad. Manic helped him untie the gang and help them to the infirmary. They talked to the lady at the front desk and got them three separate rooms. The doctors went into each room and started treating them.

A couple minutes later, a doctor came out of Sonic's room first.

Manic stood up, "How is he?"

"He's fine. He just had some deep cuts that I've cleaned and sown back up."

Manic sat back down, _All right Manic, get a grip. _"All right Tails, one down, two to go."

"Yep. Hey Manic?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you like Blaze?"

"Um, well yeah, I guess."

"Oh come on. I know you do."

"Why do you suspect that?"

"It's pretty obvious. You blush every time you see her."

"Alright fine. You caught me. But you know what, who wouldn't like her? She's perfect. She's nice, she's smart, and hell, she's good looking."

Tails laughed, "All of that's true. You're just lucky that you got her before someone else did."

"But that's the thing. I don't have technically have her. I'd really like her to be my girlfriend, but I don't know how to approach this. I don't want to just say it, because if she says no, then that might damage our friendship. But if I don't say anything, then I might not ever get a chance to get her."

Tails shifted in his seat, "Well here's how I see it, if you don't say anything, you'll have a zero chance right now, to be with her. On the other hand, if you do ask her, you'll have a chance to be with her. If she says no, you'll still have your friendship to fall back on."

"Damn Tails. You're young but you're smart."

"Here's an idea, we're having a party over at Amy's house in a couple of days. Why don't you ask her there?"

"I will, if I win the vote." Manic smirked.

Another doctor walked out, this time out of Knuckles room. He said that he was gonna be fine. He just needed a splint and some bandages. Now the only doctor that needed to show up was Blaze's. Ten minutes later, the doc finally popped out.

Manic scratched his ear, "How is she?"

He confidently said, "She's taken the most damage out of all of them, but she'll be fine. She just needs some sleep."

"Thanks Doc." Said Tails.

"Well now what do we do?" Asked Manic.

"We should probably see if it is okay with Sally if we can do that vote."

"Alright." Manic and Tails started walking out of the infirmary. Manic had the feeling like he was being watched. And in fact, he was. Everyone remembered him, but they didn't seem as angry. He was a little thankful, but still concerned. They found Sally sitting on a bench talking to Amy.

"Hey Sally, can I talk to you?" Asked Tails.

"Yeah, sure." She got up and followed Tails a few meters away. Manic stood there alone with Amy. She turned her head away.

Manic sat down, "You got a problem with me?"

"I don't want to talk to you."

Manic leaned back, "Fine."

Tails and Sally walked back to where they were sitting.

"All right Manic, you can have your vote. And hopefully you'll win." Said Sally.

"Oh, thank you. So, how's this thing gonna go down?"

"You let me worry about that. The voting starts tomorrow."

"Okay."

"All right well I'm gonna go work on the X-Tornado. Bye." Said Tails.

"Yeah, I gotta go too. See yeah." Sally walked off. Now it was just Amy and Manic.

Manic turned to her, "I wanted to ask you, what's your problem with me?"

"You hurt Sonic. I don't think I can ever forgive you for that."

"Amy, listen to me. Sonic get's hurt all the time. He's been through worse."

"But you put him in the hospital. He's only been there a few times." 

"Look Amy, if it makes you feel any better, I'm sorry. But I wasn't myself."

"Fine Manic, I'll forgive you. But I'm still a little upset."

"Alright. Um, is it okay if I go to your party?"

Amy smiled, "Sure, we could use another person."

"Thanks. And trust me, I'll never do anything like that again." Manic stood up and walked back to the hospital. He asked if he could see Blaze. When he got the okay, he headed to her room. She was awake when he walked in.

She turned her head, "Manic? Hi! How's it going?"

He smiled, "Wow, you're really happy today."

"I'm just really happy to see you."

"I'm happy to see you too. I just came to see if you were feeling alright. Are you?"

Blaze stood up and stretched, "I feel fine. I just want to get out of here."

"Well come on, we can get you checked out of here."

"Okay. Oh, Manic? What are they gonna do with you now that you're back?"

"We're going to have a vote. And if I win, I'll be free."

"Oh. Well I'll be sure to vote for you. If I'm allowed."

"Thanks. Let's go." Manic turned to leave, but turned back around and hugged Blaze.

"Manic?" Asked Blaze.

"I'm, uh, I'm sorry that I hurt you."

"Manic you didn't hurt me. Ashura did."

"I know, but I'm the one that let my anger get out of control. But don't worry, that will never happen again." Manic and Blaze walked to the front desk and got her checked out. It was dark outside when they walked out. They said their goodbys and went to their homes. Manic got the key and opened the door. When he went to his room, he fell face flat onto his bed, and passed out.

**I've written most of this chapter at night so I havent been thinking straight. And it's summer time and I'm out of school so I'll be writing more. Review!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18.**

Manic woke up to someone knocking on his door. He swung his legs out and sat on his bed, wiping the crust out of his eyes. He stretched and headed to the door.

Tails was at the door, "Hey Manic, I just came buy to tell you that the voting takes place in 1 hour. So get ready. Like I said yesterday though, you have a high chance of winning."

Manic smiled, "Well that's good. Uh, look Tails, I'm really glad you're doing this. You're a good friend."

"Your welcome. But I gotta go help set up the booths and the podium. Talk to you later."

"See ya." Manic closed the door. He sniffed his armpit. _I don't smell that bad. I'll take a shower anyway. _He took a straight shot for the bathroom. While he was taking his shoes and other accessories off, he was doing some thinking. First off, he noticed that Ashura hadn't popped up in a while. He didn't even show up when he thought about him. That was a nice change. Second of all, he thought about life in jail. Now that he thought about it, he had almost gotten thrown in jail many, many times. But this is the first time that he actually had a fifty-fifty chance of getting tossed in jail. How sad. And lastly, how the hell was he gonna confess his feeling towards Blaze?

"I think I'll just wait until the time comes to think about that." Manic took a full on thirty minute power shower. When he was done, he felt as fresh and clean as a baby's mind. He threw his vest, shoes and jewelry back on, and headed outside. He still had thirty minutes to spare, so he wandered over to the giant tree. Surprisingly, Tails, Sonic, Knuckles, Blaze and everyone else that Manic knew were working on the voting booths, podium and doing everything that makes a vote a vote.

Sonic looked down and smiled, "What's up bro?"

He returned the expression, "Not much. I just came to see what was going on. But I already know."

"Yep. We're trying to hurry and wrap it up because we've only got about twenty minutes before the poll. If poll is the right word for it."

"Cool. Hey, I wanted to apologize for everything that happened yesterday. I let my emotions get the best of me."

"It's fine. I know you weren't yourself."

"Yeah. Tell Knuckles I'm sorry too when you see him."

"I will." Sonic returned back to his work. Manic walked back and lay on the grass. He closed his eyes and fell asleep. He didn't have any dreams. In fact, he didn't even feel like he was asleep, because he only got about ten minutes of it. He woke up to the feeling of two people shaking him.

"Manic, wake up."

"Yeah Mister Manic. This whole thing is for you."

Manic opened his eyes and saw Blaze and Cream. He stood up and scratched his head.

"Oh, sorry. Guess I passed out."

"Well come on. Everyone is starting to line up to watch the voting, and you need to get up there and stand at the podium." Explained Blaze.

"Alright alright, fine, I'm going." Manic walked up to the podium on the metal platform. He walked behind it and just stood there. He gazed at all the people that were staring at him. They weren't angry looks, just anxious.

Finally, Knuckles walked up and announced, "Today, we will be having a vote about whether or not to send Manic to jail. Everyone will have a chance to write down yes or no on different sheets of paper. When the first person is done, peel off the first sheet of paper and put it into the box to your left. It's a simple, but long process. So the faster we can do this, the faster we can determine Manic's fate."

Manic became a little nervous when the citizens started lining up in front of the booths. He watched the line slowly, and I mean slowly, deplete. He saw his friends in a group over by a tree. Since they knew him personally, they weren't allowed to vote. But they tried to raise his confidence by giving him a thumbs up and a couple other hand signals.

_Come on, hurry up. _That's all he kept saying to himself. The lines were seemingly endless. And on top of that, some of the people took a while to make their choice. About an hour and a half later, the voting was complete. Manic bent his knees to relieve some of the ache that settled in.

Knuckles walked back up on the platform, "The voting is complete. It should take a minimum of one hour to tally all the votes. We will call everyone back here when we have the results. That is all." He walked over to Manic, "You can go." He walked off into the crowd of people. Manic strolled down to his group of friends. They all had unsure looks on their faces. Probably wondering if Manic would win or not.

Tails walked up, "Don't worry Manic, you'll win."

Sonic stepped in, "Yeah, no problem."

Manic scratched the back of his head, "Thanks guys. But I don't know. I was looking at the faces of some of the people, and looked pretty sure what they were gonna put down."

Sonia came out of nowhere, "Look on the bright side. It was manslaughter. You won't go to jail forever. And, you were doing it to protect us."

"Thanks. I'm gonna go back to my house. I need to lay down."

"Bye, Manic." Said Blaze.

Manic slouched off, "Bye."

She frowned and turned back to the gang, "Look at him. It's sad how he has to put up with all of this."

"Yeah I know. But we'll try to cheer him up when he wins." Said Sonic.

Manic took out his key and opened the door. His house for some reason always smelled like a forest. He never could figure out why. He moseyed on into the living room and flopped down on the couch. He didn't try to go to sleep. He just laid there staring at the ceiling. He heard a knock on the door. He made his way to the door and opened it.

Blaze was standing there with a happy look on her face, "Good news Manic, I talked to Knuckles and so far, the votes are in your favor."

"How many votes have been tallied?"

"About half of them."

"Well you know, it could go either way from here."

"Oh come on, cheer up."

"Let's just see if I win or not."

"Alright. Well I gotta go. Bye."

"See ya later." Manic closed the door.

**ONE HOUR LATER**

Manic got up from watching T.V. And left his house. The light blinded him when he walked out. He trotted over to the big tree where the voting was staged. Everyone was in a crowd again and Knuckles was on the stage waiting for him. Manic strolled up to the platform and stood behind the podium.

Knuckles leaned over to him, "Where the hell have you been?"

He smirked, "Sorry, just a little nervous."

"We'll be getting the results in a few minutes. I don't know what they are, but I'm sure they're in your favor." Knuckles then turned to the crowd. "We'll be getting the results shortly. Just sit tight."

Two minutes passed and Tails came running up with a small envelope. He handed it to Knuckles. Manic's heart rate increased. A hint of fear even entered his system. Knuckles opened the envelope and smiled.

He looked at the crowd, "The results are in. Manic, 527 people said that you should go to jail. 5...62 people said that you should be free. I hereby drop all charges against you."

Manic felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders. There were cheers and boos from the group of citizens. Mostly cheers. Manic walked down from the stage, feeling really good. Sonia ran up and hugged Manic. He laughed as his friends ran up and high-fived him and the girls hugged him. Manic felt like he was on top of the world.

Amy ran up to him, "Hey Manic, I'm thinking about moving the party to tonight. Think of it as a celebration."

"Cool. It's not a formal party is it? I don't do formal."

"No Manic, it's not formal. It's just all of our friends, hanging out."

"Sweet. I just have one more question. Will there be alcohol?"

"Haha. No. There's gonna be soda, but nothing alcoholic."

"That's all I needed to know."

"Do you want there to be alcohol?"

"Well it's a party so I just assumed."

She gave him a weird look, "You're not an alcoholic are you?"

"What, me? Oh hell no."

"Alright, well the party's at eight. So get ready."

"See you there." Manic turned to walk off.

Amy caught him, "Manic wait, one more thing. Tails told me about, you know, you liking Blaze."

He went wide eyed, "He did? How much did he tell you?"

She smiled, "Only that you liked her and you want her to be your girlfriend. He also told me that you were going to confess your feelings toward her at my party."

"Umm, yeah. Unless you think that's a bad idea."

"No, I think that's a great idea. Just don't say anything as soon as everybody gets there. Do it near the end so that if she says no, the rest of the night won't be awkward."

"Thanks for the advise." Manic then walked off. Thankfully, Blaze wasn't around when the conversation sparked. Manic was getting approving looks from the people around him. It was only two o' clock, so Manic still had a good six hours to screw around. He felt a presence behind him. He swung around and saw Blaze.

He grinned, "Hey there Blaze."

"Hi Manic. I wanted to talked to you about something..."

Manic's pulse raced. _Oh no. She found out._

She finished her sentence, "What was it like knowing that you could have gone to jail for a long time?"

He was relieved, "Well, uh, it was a little unusual. I'm mean, I've almost gotten thrown in jail a bunch of times."

"Well that would suck if you got put in jail. You're my friend. I'd have to go visit you."

"Heh, yeah. Hey, are you going to Amy's party tonight?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"Yep. Well I gotta go. Bye."

"Bye Manic."

Manic strolled back to his bungalow and sat down on the couch. He was pondering the fact that he was free again. Technically, he was always free. Like they were gonna catch him. But now there was nothing to do for six hours, except sleep. That's all Manic really enjoyed doing. But he couldn't sleep now because he might accidentally be late for the party. Manic flipped on the television, laid down, and stared at the monitor.

**Next chapter is party time. So get ready. REVIEW!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Night had fallen. It was 7:30pm. Manic was walking over to Sonic's house to see they needed to bring anything to the party. When he got there, he knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.

Sonic opened the door, "Hey man, what's up?"

"Hey, are we supposed to bring anything to the party?"

"No, not really. We just need to show up and have a good time. She does have the biggest house in Knothole, so we're not going to be crammed."

"Well that's good."

"Hey, Amy needs a couple of people to help her with the finishing decorations. How bout we swing over there and help her."

"Sounds good." Sonic closed and locked his door. They walked for what seemed like forever. Amy's house was a lot further away than he remembered. They finally reached her house at 7:45pm. Manic knocked on the door. He heard some rumbling from inside the house. Then the door opened.

Amy smiled, "Come in. There's not a lot left to do."

"Alright cool. You know, you could have requested help sooner. It would've been less work for you." Said Sonic.

"Well it was no big deal."

Manic was walking around observing the streamers that laced the ceiling and stair case railing. Amy noticed him staring into space.

"Hey Manic? Are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, just thinking."

"About what?"

"You know what."

"Oh, okay."

Sonic piped up, "What does she know?"

Manic changed the subject, "Nothing. Alright, what do you need us to do?"

She pointed over to the corner, "I want you to move those chairs down into the basement. There's a table down there, put the chairs around it."

"Gotcha." Said Sonic.

Manic grabbed a couple chairs and headed down to the basement.

Sonic asked Amy a question, "So what were you and him talking about?"

"Oh noting."

"Come on. You can tell me anything."

"Sorry, it's just between me and Manic. And Tails."

"Really? Tails knows too?"

"Yeah."

"Tell me. Please?"

"Okay, fine. Manic likes Blaze. There are you happy?"

Sonic went wide eyed, "What? Really?"

"Yeah. Why, is that bad?"

"No. It's just that Manic never seemed interested in girls the whole time I've known him. This is the first time."

"Well, everyone has a first time."

Manic had been listening to the whole conversation, "What the hell. Did you tell him?"

"I'm sorry Manic. I can't keep secrets from Sonic."

Manic grabbed two more chairs, "Well now you know Sonic. How about you help with the chairs."

"Okay." Sonic picked up the last two chairs and got them downstairs.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about." Said Sonic.

"I know. But I just don't want the whole world knowing. Three is enough."

"Are you gonna tell her?"

"I plan on it tonight."

"Cool. What's this sudden interest in girls? You haven't seemed to be interested in them until now."

"Most girls I don't really care for. But Blaze is different."

"She is pretty hot."

"But that's the thing. It's not just that. She's the only girl I can think of that hasn't criticized me for my background. Even Sonia does it."

"You've really turned into a softie over the years."

"What? I'm not a softie!"

"Whatever you say. Come on. It's almost eight. Let's get back upstairs and wait for our friends to come."

"Sweet. Let's go." The two brothers headed upstairs. Manic yawned and stretched his arm. He wanted to stay up as late as possible, so that wasn't a good thing. The first one that showed up was Tails, who was there by the time Sonic and Manic got back upstairs.

"What's up Tails." Said Sonic.

"Just hanging out. I'm waiting for more people to show up."

"Well they should be here soon." Said Manic. There was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Said Amy. She opened it, revealing Blaze.

"Oh, hi Blaze." Amy flashed a smile at Manic.

"Hey everybody." Said Blaze.

"Well, I think we have enough people to start this party. Alright, in the basement there is a pool table and plasma screen TV. I have a lot of horror movies, so you can choose which you want to watch. On the kitchen table, there is a lot of soda and chips. In the great room I have a karaoke machine. I don't know why, no one in Knothole can really sing."

"Okay, okay. Obviously you don't remember the Sonic Underground." Pointed out Sonic.

"No offense Sonic, but I used to listed to your band, and you kind of had that rough, scratchy voice that people had a hard time listening to." Counteracted Tails.

"Oh come on. Sonic's voice was...okay." Argued Amy.

Sonic defended himself, "Alright, enough picking on cool kid. So are we gonna light this fuse or not?"

"Let's do it." Responded Amy. They all branched off into their separate locations. Amy and Blaze went to the karaoke room and Sonic, Manic, and Tails went to the pool and TV room.

Amy remembered, "Oh crap, I forgot about music." She walked over and turned on the stereo. She had a six CD changer. "What do you want to listen to?"

"Um, surprise me." Said Blaze.

She switched the the first CD in the stereo. It was Breaking Benjamin's Phobia album. She switched to track two which was The Diary of Jane.

Blaze smiled, "I love this song."

She and Amy sat down on one of the couches that were in the room.

"So, what's new? Anything exciting happening?" Amy asked Blaze.

"Nothing really, besides traveling around with a green hedgehog that was on death row."

"That wasn't a bad thing, was it?"

"To be honest Amy, I really liked being with him. He has an interesting life."

"He told you about his life?"

"He told me everything, and I told him everything."

"Wow. That must have been a long conversation."

"It was, but it was a good one. So what about you?"

"Not a lot. Just messing around." There was another knock on the door. This time it was Knuckles and Sonia. Cream was with them.

Amy yelled, "Come in!"

They strode through the doorway. Sonia spoke up, "Hey guys. Where is everybody?"

"Sonic, Tails, and Manic are all downstairs." Said Amy.

"Well I better go down there and say hello." Said Knuckles. He disappeared down the stairs. Sonia and Cream sat down with Amy and Blaze. They talked about stuff that girls normally talk about (I wouldn't know).

**MEANWHILE**

"Alright Sonic, prepare to die." Smirked Manic.

"You'll never beat me Manic. Not now, not ever!"

"We'll see." He hit the cue ball into the 8-ball. He slightly missed the corner pocket. It ricochet off the pool table wall and bounced out onto the floor.

"Son of bitch." Manic said calmly.

Knuckles responded, "It's not all about power Manic."

Tails picked the ball up off the floor, "You know Knuckles, I think that's the first time I've heard you say that."

"Huh, you're right. It feels weird."

"All I know is if Manic keeps playing like he has been, I might win." Said Sonic.

"Who's playing the winner?" Asked Manic.

Knuckles spoke up, "I think Tails and I should play after this. You guys need a break anyway before you start fighting."

Manic laughed, "I think that's a good idea."

Sonic lined up his shot, "Last shot of the game right here." He took the shot and managed to bounce the 8-ball off the side of the table and make it completely roll to the other side of the table and make it into the corner pocket. Tails and Knuckles clapped and cheered at the shot.

Manic smiled, "Damn, nice shot. Alright let's set them back up and let Knuckles and Tails play."

"Cool." Sonic said as he started setting the balls into the triangle.

Manic started to head up the stairs, "I'm gonna get something to drink. Anybody want anything?"

Sonic said, "Coke."

Tails said, "Pepsi."

Knuckles said, "Root Beer."

Manic went upstairs. He overheard the girls talking about something that had to do with how guys try to act tough around women. He grabbed a can of Coke, Pepsi, Root Beer, and a Mountain Dew for him. When he walked past the room where the girls were, they caught him.

Blaze smiled, "Hi Manic. Come and sit down. We want to talk to you."

"Um, okay." He went and sat down next to her and set the drinks down on the coffee table. "So, what's up?"

"We were talking about how boys like to act strong around girls." Explained Cream.

"And we wanted to know if you, Knuckles, or Tails do it." Finished Amy.

"I'm guessing you already know Sonic does it right?"

"Oh of course." Said Sonia.

Manic leaned forward, "Well I guess all guys do it to a point. Knuckles does it by just, acting tough and staying at a distance from people. Tails on the other hand, he doesn't really do it, he doesn't because he has no one to impress. He used to do it around Cosmo though."

"Who's Cosmo?" Asked Blaze and Sonia.

"She was this plant-like girl that Tails had a thing for. She crash landed here and we took care of her. That was basically the start of one of the biggest adventures of our lives."

"Yeah Manic's right. By the way, you never told us if you try and act tough around girls." Said Amy.

He took a deep breath, "Well I uh, I guess sometimes I do. But I never really had anyone to impress my whole life. I better get back downstairs, they're waiting for me." Manic got up and grabbed the drinks. When he got back to the basement, Sonic against the wall watching the pool game.

He smirked, "What the hell took you so long?"

"Sorry, I got caught up. Here's your Coke."

"Thanks."

Manic set Knuckles' and Tails' drinks on a table that was in the corner of the room. He walked back over and started watching the game. Tails was winning. When the game was over, they all walked up to the great room where the girls were. They were using the karaoke machine. They were singing Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar. The song ended and all the guys started whistling and clapping. They all turned around and started blushing.

Knuckles laughed, "So this is what you guys have been doing."

Amy put the microphone down, "Not the whole time."

"Well I must admit, that wasn't the greatest singing I've ever heard." Said Knuckles.

"Well if you think you can sing better, you do it." Blaze pointed the mic at him.

"What? I can't sing. How about Sonic?"

Sonic scratched his head, "No way man. I already got ganged up on about how I'm a shitty singer." Sonic glanced at Tails.

He noticed this, "Don't even think about volunteering me. I haven't sung one musical note in my life."

Blaze smirked, "I knew you guys wouldn't do it. That just leaves you Manic. Do you want to give it a shot?"

"I haven't sung in a while. My pipes might be a little rusty."

"Come on."

"Fine. Is this the kind of machine that cuts out the vocals but keeps the music?"

"Yes."

"Alright, well I have a CD right here." Manic pulled out the Disturbed album, Asylum.

"Well put it in."

Manic smiled, "That's what she said." He replaced the Pat Benatar CD with the Asylum CD. He switched to the second track, which was Asylum. The song started up and Manic took a deep breath.

Then he started to sing.

_Hahahahahahahaha_

_Release Me!_

_No remnants were ever found of it,_

_Feeling the hot bile_

_With every fake smile_

_Though no evidence were ever found_

_They never went away completely_

_I tried to welcome the unholy sound of it,_

_Another day gone, another nights dawn._

_Dark forces pull me underground,_

_They never went away completely._

_How can I feel this empty?_

_I will not recover this time._

_This loneliness is killing me!_

_Will I ever know peace of mind again?_

_I don't believe it,_

_I can't achieve it._

_I think I know it's just another sign that never went away completely._

_Terror is coursing in me, _

_Dreading the final moments_

_When I have to dream._

_And feel you die!_

_In Asylum, I live a lie._

_Don't you know I'm in love with you and I wasn't ready,_

_For Asylum, relive a lie._

_To let go now it's dragging me into your grave,_

_Your Asylum, forget the lie._

_Overcome with the feeling that I won't get to join you in time,_

_But the loneliness is killing me!_

_Death's images are all around again,_

_They're right behind me, they're gonna find me._

_Judgment from the immortal sin_

_That had enveloped me completely._

_I know I'll never know a peaceful night again,_

_Afraid they'll hear me, they don't fear me._

_Punishment from the immoral crime,_

_The dept was never paid completely._

_Terror is coursing in me,_

_Dreading the final moments_

_When I have to dream._

_And feel you die!_

_In Asylum, I live a lie._

_Don't you know I'm in love with you and I wasn't ready,_

_For Asylum, relive a lie._

_To let go now it's dragging me into your grave,_

_Your Asylum, forget the lie._

_Overcome by the feeling that I won't get to join you in time,_

_But the loneliness is killing me!_

_In the end there will be no suffering,_

_In the end you will find out everything,_

_In the end you may question your belief,_

_In the end you will realize finally, how you were saved._

_This has gone on too long,_

_No more demonic dreams,_

_Destroyer come to light,_

_Because the memory is killing me!_

_In Asylum, I live a lie._

_I let go now it's dragging me into your grave,_

_For Asylum, we live a lie._

_Overcome with the feeling that I won't get to join you in time,_

_This world is not fulfilling me!_

_Don't leave me in an Asylum, I live a lie._

_Don't want to live in Asylum, I live a lie._

_Don't leave me in an Asylum, I live a lie._

As the song closed out, Manic put the microphone down on the couch. He looked at the group of girls, "There, are you happy now?"

There was more clapping. "That was really good." Said Blaze.

"Thanks. I haven't sang a song in a while." He walked to the coffee table and took a sip of his Mountain Dew.

"Why? Do you not like to sing?" She asked.

"Not really."

"All right everybody, let's move the chairs and couches out of the way so we can dance." Said Amy.

"Wait a minute, we're dancing now?" Asked Knuckles.

"Why the hell not? It's a party. It's kind of required to dance at a party."

"That's a good point. Alright let's help her." Said Sonia. They started moving the furniture to the walls of the room. There was a huge empty space in the center of the room for dancing.

"Alright, first rule of dancing, do you have good music to groove to?" Asked Sonic.

"Um, I only have some techno music that has no words. Do you think that will work?"

"Probably. Next, do you have a strobe light?"

"Yes. It's in the closet in the basement."

Tails jumped up, "I'll go get it." He walked out of the room and disappeared down the stairs.

Sonic continued, "Lastly, does anyone actually have the balls to dance?"

Sonia, Blaze, and Amy talked in unison, "I do."

"I will if someone makes me." Said Manic.

A few minutes later, Tails came back with the strobe light in his left hand. He set it on the stereo and plugged it in to the outlet behind the karaoke machine. Cream switched to the fourth CD in the system, which was one of the techno albums. Blaze walked over and flipped the lights off. Tails then turned on the strobe light. Manic was wondering about the impending seizures that might happen to one of them. But at that point, he didn't care. He laughed as he and his friends unwillingly danced with girls that wanted them to. Amy with Sonic, Cream with Tails, Sonia with Knuckles, Manic with Blaze. Eventually, the guys got into it, right up until there was a slow song. Manic laughed at Sonic when Amy threw her arms around his neck. Sonic got an embarrassed look on his face. The rest of the girls did the same thing.

Manic put his hands on Blaze's waist, "Do you mind?"

"Of course not, it's a slow song, you're kind of supposed to."

Manic's face got hot when she got in dangerously close to him. His pulse increased by three times the speed it normally should.

Blaze smiled, "I can feel your heart beat."

"Uh, from there?"

"It's beating pretty hard." They danced for a little while longer. When the song ended, they released their hold on each other.

Manic leaned in to whisper in her ear, "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure." She followed Manic outside. They stood out on the grass for a second before Manic said something.

"I wanted to talk to you alone."

"What about?"

"Look, uh, I don't know how to say this. When a man knows a woman for a certain amount of time-"

"You're not gonna give me the sex talk are you?"

"What, no. You know what, I'm just gonna come out and say this. Blaze... I think I'm in love with you."

"...What?"

"Listen, I don't care how you react to what I just said. I just needed to say it. You might not have the same feelings for me, but I need you to know I have them for you." He felt unsure how the conversation was going.

Blaze was silent for a moment, "You're the first guy that's ever said that to me. I've had the greatest time with you when we were running from Knothole, just being alone with you. And when I showed you my true form, I thought for sure you would be scared of me, but you accepted me for who I was. I could never had asked for a better friend. And I think I love you too."

Manic's whole world lit up, "Really?"

"Yes."

"Um, do you want to be my girlfriend?"

"Of course I would." Blaze kissed Manic for what seemed like forever. Manic could here the group from inside go Awwww.

Tails called out, "Are you guys gonna make out or come in and watch One Missed Call with us?"

Manic smiled, "Let's go." They walked inside with the rest of the group.

"So what's this movie about Amy?" Asked Knuckles.

They continued to the basement, "It's about these people who are getting calls from people who are already dead. The dead person calls a random victim, and when that person dies, they call another person. But the call that a person gets is a voice mail of them dying. It's kind of hard to explain, you're just gonna have to watch it."

When the gang got downstairs, they put the movie in the DVD player, turned off the lights, and watched the movie. Manic started to get tired about halfway through the movie. Blaze had already fallen asleep on his shoulder. He managed to stay awake for the duration of the movie. He thought it was good, maybe 7/10. The only two that were awake, was Manic and Knuckles.

"So, how does it feel to finally get the girl of your dreams?" Asked Knuckles.

"It feels really good. It feels like I've actually accomplished something good in my life."

"Well, we can give you hell about it in the morning." Then Knuckles passed out.

Manic looked over at Blaze and smiled, then fell asleep.

**Well, that wraps up this chapter. Review if you like Disturbed, or if you like the story.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20. I can't believe it.**

Manic felt a tickling sensation on his forehead. Luckily, he had pulled this prank many times before. He could hear Sonic and Tails chuckling quietly. He squinted his eyes so he could barely lock onto his target. He threw his left hand up at Sonic and smeared shaving cream all over his face. Tails and Manic both laughed at him as he wiped the white foam out of his eyes.

Manic controlled his laughter, "Nice try Sonic, but I know you too well to fall for that."

He flicked the shaving cream on the ground, "Apparently."

Manic stood up and stretched, "Where are Knuckles and the girls at?"

"Knuckles went back to Angel Island, and the girls are upstairs." Explained Tails.

"I should probably head back home. I'll say goodbye on my way out." Said Manic. He wiped the rest of the shaving cream from his hand on Tails' face and headed upstairs. He heard the girls talking from the kitchen.

"So, you and Manic huh?" Asked Sonia.

"Yeah, why? Is there something wrong?" Blaze asked back.

"No, it's just that Manic never told me that he liked you. But he told Amy, Tails, and Sonic."

"That's because you can't keep a secret, Sonia." Manic interjected.

"What? Yes I can!"

He folded his arms behind his back, "Do you remember that time when I told you that I was gonna give Sonic a basket full of chili dogs for his birthday? I told you not to tell him. About an hour later Sonic asked you if you got him anything for his birthday, and these were your exact words. "I was thinking about it. But Manic got you a basket of chili dogs." Ever since then I haven't told you a secret."

Sonia was dumbfounded, "I wouldn't say those were my exact words."

"That's not the—" Manic was cut off by a loud explosion that emitted from outside.

Sonic and Tails rushed upstairs, "What the hell was that?"

"We're about to find out." Said Blaze.

Knuckles burst through the door, "I could really use your guys' assistance!"

"What's going on out there Knuckles?" Asked Manic.

"An attack by Eggman. But this isn't a normal one, it's as if he's looking for something, or someone."

"Well, let's get out there." Said Tails. The group ran out into the field that Eggman's ship was hovering over. Manic was wondering why he was so close to the ground. In the distance he could see Eggman in his pod. He flew towards the Freedom Fighters with an evil grin on his face.

"Well, if it isn't the whole gang together."

"Why are you here Eggman?" Yelled Sonic.

"I just wanted to talk. I've come to realize that forcing you to give me your chaos emeralds just destroy my bots. So either you give me the Chaos Emeralds, or I'll have my special friend kill you all."

"And who could that be?" Asked Amy. Eggman whistled, and a humungous dragon dropped from the sky. It made the loudest, and most terrifying roar Manic had ever heard. Manic was shocked to realize that the dragon was the same one from the vision.

Eggman laughed, "Have fun." Then he retreated back to his ship.

"Well, how are we gonna get out of this one?" Asked Blaze.

"I honestly don't know." Responded Sonic.

"Let's just stick with our normal plan, wing it." Said Tails.

"Good idea Tails." Manic took a deep breath, "Let's get some." Sonic took a running start at the dragon, but got blind-sided by a tail sweep. He launched back towards the group. Amy ran up and dodged the creature's first attack, and hit it on the leg with her hammer. The dragon didn't even seemed phased by the attack. It kicked Amy like a soccer ball into Tails. Knuckles unleashed a flurry of powerful punches that left scars and imprints on It's underside, but to no avail. It crushed Knuckles with It's tiny fist, which was surprisingly powerful. Blaze was next, she started shooting fire at the creature. She was agile enough to dodge the dragon's attacks, and the flames seemed to be damaging him. That's when it managed to grab her and crush her in It's hand. She cried out in pain.

"Blaze!" Manic sprinted up to the dragon and jumped up on It's arm. He used his gauntlet to cut the creature's arm off. He pried the hand open and freed Blaze. While the dragon was writhing in pain, Manic summoned his earth powers. He felt a knot form in his stomach as he ripped a hole in the ground, just big enough for the dragon to fit into. The dragon fell in, and Manic closed the hole.

Manic ran over to Blaze, "Are you okay?"

She coughed, "Yeah, I'm fine. What do you think will happen to the dragon?"

"He'll most likely suffocate and die." Manic admired his gauntlet, "I'm so glad this wasn't a waste of money."

Blaze smiled, "Thanks for the help."

"No problem." Manic felt a rumbling coming from underground. He turned around and saw the creature's hand pop out from the soil, followed by the rest of his body. Obviously, this wasn't over. Manic and Blaze got ready for the fight. The dragon charged at them, but Sonic came out of nowhere and punched It in the eye. He used the moment to grab on to one of It's horns and rip it out of It's head. Blood gushed out of It's head like a water fountain. The Dragon screamed in pain as it reached up to where It's horn used to be.

Sonic jumped down to Manic and Blaze, "We are gonna have to fight dirty if we want to kill this thing."

"You're right." Said Blaze. The Dragon then again charged at the group. Blaze shot a fireball at It's face, which in turn blinded him. It stopped in It's tracks, roaring.

"Launch me at him." Manic said to Sonic.

"Okay." Manic laid prone on the ground. Sonic grabbed his ankles and spun him around as fast as he could. Then he released him. Manic reached his arms out and did a tornado move toward It. He drove through It's chest like a screw. Blood flew in every direction. He tore a hole right through his torso, and broke It's spine. The Dragon dropped to the ground and died. Manic was standing on It's back with the Dragon's heart in his gauntlet hand, blood was still being pumped out.

As he walked towards Sonic and Blaze he said, "If this is what you meant by fighting dirty, I think I achieved that. Because I just went Liu Kang on that son of a bitch." He dropped the heart on the ground.

"Well Manic, I must admit, that was pretty bad ass." Commented Sonic.

"Yeah, I've never seen anything like that." Added Blaze.

"All in a days work." Said Manic.

Tails, Knuckles, and Amy ran up to Manic and praised him for what he did. Manic said that he couldn't have done it without the rest of them.

Blaze walked up to Manic, "Hey, can I talk to you in private?"

"Yeah, sure. You're not gonna break up with me are you?"

"Oh hell no. It really doesn't even seem like we are a couple."

"Yeah, you're right." Blaze took Manic far out of earshot by the hand. She took him to a small part of the woods where they met.

"I wanted to talk about you."

"What about me?"

"Do you understand how much power you have?"

"Well, I know I have enough to bring down one of Eggman's ships."

"Manic you have way much more than just that. If you wanted to, you could tear the world in half. Have you ever thought about that?"

"No I haven't. I think I see what your point is, you want me to be careful not to let my powers get out of control."

"You're right. I'm just worried that if you get mad at someone, you might accidentally hurt someone you care about."

Manic grabbed her shoulders, "Blaze, I'm glad you're worried about me. But there's nothing to worry about."

"I know but, just be careful."

"Wait, this isn't about the people around me, you don't want me to hurt myself."

She looked up into his eyes, "Well, yeah. I don't want to lose you. Can I be straight with you for a little bit?"

"Sure."

"Manic, I love you, and I don't want you to die by your own hand."

"Blaze, there is no way that I might accidentally kill myself. And there is no way in hell that I will hurt anyone around me. Especially you, because, you know, I love you too."

"That's really good to hear." She hugged and kissed him.

"Besides, I couldn't stand the thought of hurting the one I love." Said Manic.

"Awww."

"What? I'm talking about me." Manic laughed.

Blaze hit his chest and giggled, "I'd hug you again, but I just realized you're covered in that dragon's blood."

"You're right. I'm gonna head back to my house and take a shower."

"Alright, bye Manic."

"See ya Blaze." He strolled back to his house. He grabbed the key from under the mat and went inside. Manic wasn't planning on going out for the rest of the day, so when he took his clothes off, he went and threw them in the wash. Then he went and got in the shower.

**MEANWHILE**

Blaze walked around the woods for a little bit, unsure of where she wanted to go. She just wanted to think about Manic for a little bit. While she was walking, she heard what sounded like a jet get closer and closer to her. It was Eggman's pod. He dropped in in front of her.

"It looks like there is nothing I can do to stop you animals."

"Apparently not. You've tried too many times Eggman. Why don't you just give up?"

"If I quit now, who will give you a challenge?"

Blaze just stood there in silence. Then Eggman spoke again, "Maybe I can't kill Sonic, but maybe I can kill his beloved brother."

"Yeah right. He's the one that basically killed your dragon by himself."

"There are many ways I can kill him."

"Wait, what do you mean?" She felt a presence appear behind her, then it was lights out for Blaze.

**BACK TO MANIC**

Manic hopped out of the shower to someone banging on his door. He wrapped a towel around his waist and headed that way. He swung open the door to see Tails standing there panting.

"What's up Tails? Did you see a hot girl on the way here?"

"No nothing that good, actually way worse. Eggman got Blaze."

Manic frowned, "What?"

"Eggman captured Blaze. Shadow is helping him."

"Wait, how do you know this?"

"Because I got a letter from Eggman to you that explains it."

"Damn it, do you know where he is?"

"I'm damn near positive that he's in the base in Robotropolis."

"Well let me get dressed and let's haul ass to that base. Because I swear, if either of them so much as flick her ear, I'll kill both of them."

"Meet Sonic and me outside my lab in five minutes."

Manic nodded and closed the door. He dropped his towel in the bathroom and went to grab his clothes out of the wash. The bad thing is, he didn't have enough time to put them in the dryer. He awkwardly put on his clothes, and slipped his gauntlet back on. He rushed out the door and started for Tails' base. In the distance he could see Sonic and Tails.

Manic jogged up, "Is Knuckles not coming?"

"We don't have enough time to go to Angel Island. For all we know, they could be torturing Blaze right now." Responded Sonic.

Manic shuddered at the thought, "Damn it Sonic, don't say that."

"Sorry, I'm just saying. We need to go."

"I agree with Sonic." Said Tails.

"Then let's get to the X-Tornado." They all headed to the plane and took their seats. Tails tried his best to take off as fast as he could. Finally, they got into the air. Tails pushed the limits of the X-Tornado, even Sonic was surprised at the speed they were traveling.

**WITH BLAZE**

Blaze woke up with a headache. She sat up and observed her surroundings. She was trapped in a giant, bulletproof glass box that had a few holes at the top for air. She saw Shadow talking with Rouge outside of the box. She couldn't hear what the conversation was about because the box was sound proof. All of a sudden, she heard Eggman's voice coming from an intercom that was inside the glass cage.

"Well I hope you slept well Blaze. I just got word from one of my scouts that your friends are on their way here to save you. Too bad they're walking in to one of my traps."

Blaze stood up, "What are you going to do to them?"

"I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise."

**BACK WITH SONIC, MANIC, AND TAILS**

Manic could see the trash and robotic scraps that layered the terrain of Robotropolis. Manic was eager to get to Eggman's base and kick some serious ass, but he was also worried about Blaze's safety.

Tails was bobbing his knee up and down, "I just want to get in there, save Blaze, and get out."

"I want to kill Eggman." Manic said under his breath.

"Manic, you've been saying that for the last hour. You can't kill Eggman. And the only reason you can't, is because if you do, the Freedom Fighters won't have a challenge."

"Fine. Then I'll kill Shadow."

"Why?"

"Because he's the one that knocked Blaze out. It said so in the letter."

Tails yelled back, "We're coming up to the base." Tails swooped down and landed in front of it. Manic jumped out and walked toward the door, along with Tails and Sonic. He burst through the door with an angry look on his face.

"Robotnick! Come out!" Manic snarled. A TV had been placed in the middle of the room. It turned on to reveal Eggman's ugly face, sneering.

"Manic the Hedgehog. If you are hearing this message, it means that your precious girlfriend and I are no longer on Mobius. I've taken her far away to another planet. I won't tell you where we are, so you are going to have to find out on your own. Goodbye." Then the message started to repeat itself.

At this point, Manic felt hopeless, "Son of a bitch." Manic sat down on the ground, "What are we gonna do now?"

Tails walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, "C'mon Manic. We can still save her, we just need a plan."

"Yeah bro, Tails is right. You're smart, you just need to think." Said Sonic.

Manic smiled, "This is weird."

"What is?" Asked Sonic.

"It's usually you who calls the shots, but for once, It's my turn."

"Well that's because this whole situation is mostly affecting you. Blaze _is_ your girlfriend."

Manic thought for a moment, "Wait, I got it! Eggman has a computer in his office, maybe I can hack his computer and check it for any information about where he went."

"That's a great idea." Praised Tails.

Manic stood up and headed for Eggman's lab, followed closely by Sonic and Tails. When they got there, they noticed that there were papers and blueprints scattered across the floor. Manic sat down at the desk, where the computer was placed. It took him a while, put he managed to hack into his computer. He searched his files for any information on where Eggman took Blaze. Finally, he found something.

Manic pulled up the file, "It doesn't say exactly where he took her. All it mentions is three planets that he might take her to. The planets are called Direbay, Firecove, and Skullbire."

"Well, it looks like we get to use the Blue Typhoon again." Said Tails.

"But how are we gonna find the planets?" Asked Sonic.

"Remember? I have a planet tracker."

"Right. I forgot."

Manic logged off of the computer, "Well, let's get the gang together and ready the Blue Typhoon." All of a sudden, a blinding red light started flashing along with an equally discomforting siren started going off. A voice joined the siren, "Unknown lifeforms have been detected. Deadly force has now been authorized."

Manic, Sonic and Tails waited for Eggman's troops to barge through the door, but nothing happened.

Tails relaxed, "I guess he took his robots with him."

"That's kind of bittersweet. Come on, let's head back to Knothole and get the group together." Said Sonic.

**TWO HOURS LATER**

Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and Sonia all stood in a line listening to Manic and Tails debrief them on the situation.

"All right, we already know that Eggman has taken Blaze away to one of three planets, Direbay, Firecove, and Skullbire. He has most likely set up a base on each planet. We are going to go on those planets, kick some metallic ass, and look for Blaze. Any questions?" Explained Tails.

Cream raised her hand, "Is Ms. Sally coming?"

"No, she had some royal business to attend to. Now it has been a while since we used that ship, so me and Tails here are gonna fix any technical problems that have transpired from that ship being dormant for so long." Manic pitched in.

Tails continued, "We may not be covering as much area, but this mission is just as important as when we had to destroy Dark Oak. The only difference is we don't have a Seedrian and a Human helping us this time."

Sonia raised her hand this time, "We're all gonna have our own rooms, right?"

Manic answered, "Oh that's right, you've never seen the Blue Typhoon before. This is a huge ass ship, so yes, we all have our own rooms. So are we gonna do this or what?"

The crowed screamed, "Yeah!"

"All right! Just give Manic and I a couple of hours and we'll be on our way. All you really need to bring with you are a few changes of clothes, soap, shampoo, tooth paste, and a tooth brush. That should last us the trip." Tails and Manic headed off to his workshop. They entered the lounge and Tails walked up to the fireplace. He pressed in a loose cobblestone, which made the fireplace sink into the wall and reveal a staircase that led to an apparent basement. Manic followed Tails down to the basement, but it wasn't a basement, it was a lab. It was full of test tubes, air plane models, beakers, environment suits and tools.

Manic continued following Tails, "So where do you keep something as big as the Blue Typhoon down here?"

"Right over here." Tails walked over and opened a door that led to a room that held the Blue Typhoon. By the size of the room, it could have held three of them. Manic and Tails walked up and the hatch automatically opened up. They walked in and took a staircase up to the cockpit that was down the hallway. The cockpit was an area that had a transparent six inch glass cover. There were places where people sat that controlled the flight, the shields, the guns, and there were passenger seats. The pilot's seat also checked the condition of the ship. Tails got into the pilot seat and monitored the guns and shields. Both were at 100 percent. Tails then turned on the ship. The engine sputtered, then roared like that Dragon that Manic killed.

"Hey Tails, how did you find out the conditions of the guns and shield without the Blue Typhoon being on?"

"It always shows. The good thing is is that it doesn't waste the battery." Tails continued to check technical crap in the ship.

"Uh-oh." Sighed Tails.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a leaked oxygen tank down on the bottom level of the ship. We're gonna have to go down there and replace it with a new one. I have a couple in my lab. I need you to go down there and get it, while I get a new one. Meet me at the bottom of the hatch."

"Alright." Manic headed out of the cockpit and followed the signs that led down to the ground floor. He noticed a few emergency gas masks that were hanging outside of the room where the oxygen tanks were. He didn't know what to expect, so he put one on and headed into the room. The area was filled with pipes and steam gauges. He found the oxygen tanks connected to pipes that were up against the wall. They were big, and there were about a dozen of them. Luckily, each of them lasted 48 hours, so they could last (I think) 24 days before they needed to refill. The leaked tank was at the end of the line, it was leaning up against the wall. Manic's guess was that it popped off of the pipe when they roughly landed back at Knothole. Manic went over and grabbed it. He headed out of the room and started back for the entrance. Tails was already standing there with a brand new tank that was the same shape and size as the one Manic had.

Tails laughed, "You act like you're handling Nova gas."

Manic threw off the gas mask, "You can never be too careful. Now, you get rid of this busted canister, and I'll put in the new one." Manic and Tails switched cans and went there separate ways. Manic grabbed the gas mask from off of the ground on his way to the oxygen room. He put it on when he got there, and entered. He installed the canister into the empty spot. He screwed it onto the pipe like the rest of them. Then he left. Manic put his gas mask back on the hook with the rest of them outside of the door. He met Tails back at the hatch.

Tails smiled, "Alright, the Blue Typhoon is ready. Let's just bring it up to the surface." Tails pulled out a remote control and pressed a red button. The area around the ship started lifting off the ground. The platform continued to push up toward the ceiling, which was now opening like a giant trap door. Finally, the Blue Typhoon, along with Manic and Tails, were on the surface. Manic smiled as he saw that Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, Cream, and Sonia were already standing there, all with bags and suitcases. Chao was with them.

"That thing really brings back memories." Said Sonic.

"Not all of them good." Amy added.

"Let's not dwell on that. Who's ready to get Blaze back?" Asked Manic.

"Let's do this." Said Knuckles.

"Let's pile on. I'll show everyone where the rooms are when all of us are aboard." Explained Tails. The gang got in a single file line with their bags, and awkwardly got onto the ship. Tails showed everyone where the rooms were. There were plenty of rooms, so they all called their own and got settled in.

Manic and Tails were so busy, that they had forgotten to pack themselves. They both quickly headed back to their homes and packed as quickly as possible. When they came back, Sonic was waiting for them outside of the Blue Typhoon.

He looked eager, "Come on, hurry up. We need to get this show on the road."

Tails walked past him, "I know, we're leaving right now."

Manic and Sonic followed Tails into the ship, "Tails and I never got to pack. Stop being impatient."

"You sound like Sonia." He responded. Manic and Tails quickly found empty rooms. They threw their stuff into the rooms and headed up to the cockpit. Tails took the pilot seat, Sonic took the gun seat, and Knuckles was already was in the shield seat. Manic, Amy and Cream took the passenger seats. Chao flew into Manic's crazy quills and got tangled up. Tails ignited the engine.

"Everyone ready?" Tails asked.

"Yeah!" The gang yelled, except Chao who just uttered, "chao, chao."

Tails pushed forward on the thruster and turned the ship until it was facing a straight stretch. He pushed down the thruster down even more and slowly started pulling up on the joystick. Eventually, Tails got the Blue Typhoon in the air and started flying towards space.

Manic thought to himself, _I'm coming Blaze._

**Chapter 20 is done. Don't worry, this fanfic isn't even close to being over. Review if you like the Fanfic.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21. I might throw in another girl in Manic's life to add some romantic conflict.**

"Alright, the planet tracker is set. The first planet we're going to is Direbay." Said Tails.

"Anything special about this planet we should know about?" Asked Sonia.

"Not really. It's just like Mobius. A planet full of anthros." At this point, they were far away from Mobius. It was a pretty dull ride. Manic was busy trying to untangle Chao from his hair. He was so wound up about the whole situation. He didn't know if Blaze was hurt or not. She could even be dead for all he knew. Chao flew over to Cream when Manic got him free of his hair trap.

He stood up and walked over to where Tails was sitting, "When do you think we'll get there?"

"Roughly four days. That all depends if we don't run into trouble on the way."

"Damn. Well I'll be in my room. If you need me just have someone come and get me." Then he walked off. He got to his room and jumped onto his bed. Then he just laid there. He stared at the ceiling for four hours straight before he was called for dinner. The best thing about sitting around a table with a bunch of his friends was that he could talk about things he couldn't talk about with his family (Minus Sonic and Sonia).

Manic walked out toward the cockpit, "Are we gonna have dinner or what?"

Tails jumped down from his seat, "Already set up. Let's get to the dining room." Tails led the whole group to the dining room. The all took their seats. Sonic sat at the end of the table. Next to him were Sonia, Amy and Manic. Tails sat at the other end, and to his left were Knuckles and Cream. Now this wasn't like a Thanksgiving dinner or anything, but it was still nice. There were just a bunch of different snacks and drinks. There were potato chips, cookies, crackers and little mini sandwiches. There was liters of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Coke, and RC.

Manic smiled, "This is dinner?"

"Well, I didn't have a turkey breast on hand Manic. I had to use the left overs from Amy's party. Try not to eat all the food though. None of us know if we can get food from the planets we're going to." Explained Tails.

Knuckles grabbed a mini sandwich, "Hey Tails, is there a way that we can get to the planet faster? Like hyperspeed or something?"

"There is a tank full of nitrous oxide. But I want to use for emergencies only. But if you can think of a way to get us to move faster, tell me." Said Tails as he took a plate and a handful of potato chips.

"How about we don't risk blowing the ship up in any way." Said Amy.

"The thrusters are at full power, right Tails?" Asked Cream.

"Um, let me go check." Tails got up and headed out of the room.

Sonic changed the subject, "I really hope Blaze is okay."

"She should be. She can handle herself." Said Sonia.

"I swear, if Eggman or Shadow hurt her. I'll kill them." Threatened Manic.

"But Manic, then we'll have no challenge." Complained Knuckles sarcastically.

"Fine. Then I'll just kill Shadow. Or just beat the hell out of him until he's critically wounded."

Tails came back to the table, "Alright, the thrusters are now at full power. It will only take us about a day now. We may get there at 3:00pm tomorrow."

"Hey Manic, how exactly did you meet Blaze?" Asked Sonic.

"Well it was after I visited you in the hospital. I was pissed off and walking aimlessly through the woods. She came out of nowhere and started asking me to tell her what was wrong. So I told her. That's how I met her."

Amy smirked, "That's very poetic. Come on, there's got to be more than that!"

"Actually, that's about it. I saw her once for like two seconds before I left Knothole." Manic poured himself a glass of RC. All of a sudden his head started to pound. He threw his hand up and grabbed his forehead. He accidentally spilled his drink and knocked his chair over when he bolted out of it.

Tails threw a couple napkins on the spill, "Manic! Are you okay?"

He clenched his teeth and growled, "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'll be b-back." Manic ran to his room. He fell to his knees and released a mild scream. Manic thought it was an intense migraine, but this felt different. He felt an empty, tingling feeling in his head. Right before Manic thought he was about to reach his breaking point, the pain suddenly stopped. Manic slowly took his hand off his head. Then he heard Ashura.

_Guess who's back._

_Oh no._

_Don't worry, I'm not here to take over this vessel. I'm just doing what I was created to do._

_And what is that?_

_Watch over you. I guess you could call me your guardian angel._

_If that's truly all you're here for, than I have no problem with it._

_Good. Goodbye for now._

Manic heard a soft knocking on his door, "Mr. Manic? Are you there? Are you okay?"

"Cream? Yeah, I'm fine." Manic stood up and opened the door.

Cream smiled, "Okay, Sonia wanted me to check on you."

"Alright. Come on, let's get back to the dining room."

"Okay."

After dinner was over, Manic headed back to his room and went to bed. He was stuffed with soda and junk food, so it was a little hard for him to go to sleep. He heard the sound of his friends going to their rooms outside his door. A couple of them knocked and said goodnight. He responded with the same word. When he finally did get to sleep, he had the most normal dream that someone could have. He was running around town naked, and people were laughing at him.

He woke up the next morning at around 11:00. He had major crust in his eyes, and he was groggy. He guessed that everyone else was already up, so he got out of bed and flicked the remaining crust out of his eyes. He was right. Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles were playing Phase 10 in the cockpit. With no table, they were all sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Manic walked up, "Where are the girls at?"

Knuckles didn't take his eyes off of his cards, "They're somewhere on the upper level, I think."

Out of the corner of Manic's eye, he saw a blinking light coming from the pilot seat. He jumped up there and looked at the panel in front of the seat. It said "Incoming Planet".

"Uh, Tails? I think we're coming up on that planet."

"What? We're not supposed to get there until 3:00."

"Well look for yourself."

Tails laid his cards face down and ran toward his seat. He confirmed that the planet was Direbay, and switched the settings from autopilot to manual. The girls came running into the cockpit.

Sonic stood up and stretched his legs, "Hey girls, we're almost to Direbay, so we're gonna get ready to land."

"I thought we were gonna get there a 3:00?" Said Amy, unsure.

"Well Tails overshot his estimate." Said Manic.

"Hey, there's a difference between overshooting your estimate, and putting your trust in machinery." Defended Tails. "Now, if it's right this time, we should get there in about five minutes.

The planet got bigger and bigger as they flew closer. Eventually, they started to enter the atmosphere. The Blue Typhoon was so well designed that it didn't come out with so much as a scratch by the time they landed. Tails parked the ship on a large grassy plain, that was just outside of a city. The gang followed Tails to the open hatch. They headed outside one by one. It felt and looked like Mobius. It had grass, cities, clouds, a blue sky, and the sun looked the same size. After a long walk, they made it to the city.

"Now guys, remember why we're here. We are just gonna ask around about Eggman and where his base is located." Said Tails.

The gang made it to the city, and instantly started asking around. The girls and boys split into separate groups. Manic broke off from his group to go and find out information on his own. While he was walking around, he found a company that sells real estate. He walked and a little bell rang. The office smelled like pine. It just looked like a normal office.

Manic walked up to the lady at the front desk, "Excuse me, do you know of any big egg-shaped humans around here?" Manic felt guilty thinking she was hot.

She responded, "No, I don't recall. I remember one of the other employees talking about a human in a red jumpsuit."

"Do you know where I can find the person?"

"I can take you to her. Follow me." She got up, and Manic followed her up the stairs that were at the other side of the room. Manic thought to himself, _Nice ass._ They walked down the hallway to another office. On the wall next to the door was a plate with the name Ms. Star Hedgehog.

"Star? This man wants to know about that guy you saw in the red jumpsuit." Said the receptionist.

The girl looked up from her work. Now Manic thought this girl was absolutely gorgeous. She had white fur and white shoulder length hair that draped over the quills in the back of her head. She also had light blue eyes. She wore a red sweater and skin tight blue jeans. Her shoes were a mix between high heels and boots, kind of like Amy's, only her's were yellow and black. On top of that, she had nice breasts.

She spoke, "He does? Oh, well sit down and we'll talk." Manic took a seat in the nice chair that sat in front of her desk. He tried hard not to let his hormones get the best of him. After all, he was in love with Blaze. She was why he was here. The receptionist left and Manic and Star were alone to talk.

She looked him up and down, "So what do you want to know about the man."

"First I want to know why he was here."

"Well I was taking over as receptionist because the other one was out of town, and he walked in. He wanted to know if there were big spots of land that he could build on. I said that we sold houses and that that's not what we do. He said that he would get help somewhere else. That's it."

"Did he have goggles on his head? Was he tall but fat?"

"Yes, and yes."

"Then I think I know who you're talking about. His name is Dr. Eggman, or Robonick. He's a horrible man who wants nothing more than to rule the world that I'm from."

"You're not from here? Where are you from?"

"Mobius."

"And you're tracking this Eggman guy because..."

"He kidnapped my girlfriend."

"Oh, I'm sorry. If there's anything I can do to help, just tell me."

"Well, there is one thing. Did he give you any kind of hint on where he was going?"

She opened one of her cabinets and pulled out a little sheet of paper. She handed it to Manic. On the paper were the words Firecove, Skullbire, and Direbay. Direbay was previously circled, but had an X over it. The next planet that was circled was Skullbire.

"I guess that's where he's going next." Said Manic.

"Maybe."

Manic put the paper in his fanny pack, "Alright, thanks for your help. I need to get going, my friends are probably wondering where I am."

"Okay, bye."

Manic walked down the stairs and exited the building. The gang was waiting outside with disappointed looks on their faces.

Sonia spoke up, "Where the hell were you?"

"In there." Manic pointed at the building behind him.

"We were looking everywhere for you. Don't ever run off like that again." Said Amy.

"I can't count the number of times I've been told that. But I'm glad a ran off because I got this." Manic pulled out the piece of paper and handed it to Sonic.

He observed it for a second before he spoke, "So you think he's in Skullbire?"

"Yes. My guess is that he not only is making us chase him, but I think that he's trying to find a planet that isn't inhabited with a lot of life so he can build his empire. It's just a guess."

"That's a pretty good hypothesis. He's always trying to do that. Well, should we get a move on?" Asked Tails.

"Yeah, we should go." Responded Knuckles.

**ONE HOUR LATER**

"Even if we have our thrusters at full power, it will take us about four days to get to Skullbire." Explained Tails.

"Well if we get lucky, the thing's wrong and it won't take as long." Said Cream, trying to raise the hopes of her friends.

"I don't want to sound like an ass, but there's also a chance that it could take us longer to get there-" Manic was cut off by a rummaging sound coming from another room. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Asked Sonic.

"Uh, nothing. Must be hearing things." That didn't stop Manic from investigating where the sound came from. He the noise continued, like somebody fell into some scrap metal. It got louder as Manic got closer. He made it to a storage room and put his ear up to the door. The noise happened again, and Manic swung open the door, metal scraps fell out. On top of them was Star.

"Star? What the hell are you doing here!" Manic exclaimed.

"Well... I wanted to help." She said helplessly.

"You can't be here. You're gonna get hurt."

"Oh, come on. You have like a nine year old rabbit with you. Besides, I'm not useless."

"That's a good point. How did you get here anyway?"

"I told you I'm not useless. I hopped in when the hatch almost closed. See I used to belong to a gang that pulled off huge heists. I had to learn the hard way how to sneak. I had to learn about light levels, the enemy's eye sight, and environmental sound. I also needed to carry almost no equipment, so that the weight wouldn't make my footsteps louder. I'm also an assassin. I can be almost invisible when I want to."

"Well where's your equipment? Do you even have a change of clothes?"

"In the bag." She pulled out a brown duffel bag. "So what do you do?"

"Well, I'm a thief. But I've tried to stop. But once you're a kleptomaniac, it's hard to stop. So I guess you and me were trained the same way."

"I guess so. So can I stay?" She gave Manic I cute look that Manic couldn't say no to.

"Look, if it were up to me, I'd say yes. But I'm gonna have to introduce you to Tails and have him decide. He'll most likely say yes."

"Sweet."

"Come with me." She grabbed her bags and followed Manic. Manic walked into the cockpit with Star, and he received unpleasant looks from his friends.

"Uh, Manic? Who's that?" Asked Sonia.

"This is Star." Star gave a little wave.

"Why is she here?" Amy asked this time.

Manic noticed that none of the guys were asking questions. They were probably drooling over Star's physique. "She snuck on here when we got on. But before this gets out of hand, I want Tails to talk to her first."

Sonic got offended, "Why him?"

"Because he's the commander of this vessel, and he's the one that can allow her to be here."

Tails jumped down from his seat, "Alright, I'm gonna ask you a series of questions so I can feel more comfortable about letting you stay here. I don't have a lying detector test, so I'm going to have to take your word for it. First question. Why are you here?"

Star answered, "I want to help Manic find his girlfriend."

"Do you have any specialties? You know, like CQC or demolition?"

"Espionage, assassination, thieving."

"Really? Cool. Last question, are you working for someone who is our enemy?"

"No."

"Alright, that's all."

"So can I stay?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Cool!"

"Alright, let me show you to your room." Said Knuckles.

Manic stopped him, "No way horndog, I'll do it. Come on Star."

Manic and Star traveled down the hall, and Manic found an empty room for her. All the rooms were exactly the same, so it's not like she was getting the short end of the deal. She sat on her bed, and Manic left her to get settled in. She reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of high tech binoculars, a sneak suit, a couple EMP grenades, four throwing knives and a katana sword. She laid them on her bed and checked them all off her mental check list. She put them all back in her bag, except her suit, which she replaced with her current clothes. Her sneak suit kind of looked like the one from Fallout 3, but this one had a complete bulletproof plating that could block any hand gun bullets and laser gun rays. She hung her clothes in the closet and left. She didn't really want to leave her room because she wasn't comfortable around anyone except Manic. She walked around the corner and accidentally bumped into Cream.

She fell over, "Ow."

Star went to help her up, "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Hey, you're that girl that Mr. Manic was talking about. What was your name again?"

"Star the Hedgehog. You're Cream right?"

"Yes. Do you want to come with to the dining room? Me and my friends are going to talk about boys."

Star was surprised that Cream was talking about boys with other girls. But she accepted the offer and Cream led her to the dining room.

Sonia and Amy were already there. They both looked at Star with distraught looks on their faces. She and Cream sat down next to each other.

Sonia frowned, "What's she doing here?"

Cream widened her eyes, "I wanted her to come."

"Listen, I know you don't like me, but could I ask why?" Asked Star.

"We just don't like new girls taking all the attention." Explained Amy.

"Well I'm sorry about that. I'm not trying to take any attention."

"Do you like Manic or something? Is that why you're here?"

"What? N-no! Look, can we just stop this?" Star got up and left the room. Manic was walking down the hallway at the same time.

He noticed the look on her face, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"It's just that Sonia and Amy are being bitches to me. They said that it was because they don't like new girls taking all the attention."

"It's probably also because they're just jealous of you."

"Why would they be jealous?"

Manic didn't mean this to hit on her, "Maybe because you're prettier than them?"

Star blushed, "I am?"

"Well, I think you are. But that's probably because I'm into lighter colored fur."

"Does your girlfriend have light fur?"

"It's kind of a lavenderish blue."

Tails came running out of nowhere, "Manic! We're coming up on Skullbire!"

"What? Already?"

"Yeah! I really need to fix that planet tracker."

Manic and Star headed to the cockpit while Tails told Amy, Sonia, and Cream the news. The planet looked a lot different than Direbay and Mobius. It had a sickly green color, and it looked like it was mostly land. There wasn't a lot of water. But the good thing is, it looked heavily populated. So Eggman probably wouldn't think about building an empire here. They got close enough to the planet to see that there were cites, lakes, buildings, pastures, and complete open fields. Tails came back and took control of the ship. He headed toward an open plain, but he landed close enough to a town to where they didn't have to walk that far to get there.

When they got off, Sonic spoke, "So Tails, are we just gonna search that town for answers?"

"Pretty much. But remember, even if someone knows something and they won't tell you, don't use lethal force. I forgot to tell you guys that last time."

Knuckles raised his hands up in defense, "Like I was supposed to know that guy was a police chief."

"Anyway, let's just get this done." Said Tails.

The group walked into town and split up like last time. And also like the time before, Manic broke off from the group with Star. They found a bar that looked like it's been there for years. It was so old that it had two swinging doors like the ones from a saloon from the old west. They walked in nonchalantly and walked up to one of the two bartenders.

"Hey, do you know of any big tall, egg-shaped humans walking around town?"

"Who wants to know?" The bartender took a good look at Manic, "No way. Manic? Is that you?"

Manic was a little taken back, "Um, yeah?"

"You don't remember me do you?"

Manic looked at this guy hard. He was a burly armadillo that looked like he's kicked more than a few asses in his life. He had a tattoo on his right arm that looked like a circle with three swords stabbed though it. It was the tattoo you got when you became a master thief. Manic was supposed get one the day after Farrel died.

"You're a thief?"

"Yeah. Come on, it's me. Setrid. I knew your mentor, Farrel."

"Wait a minute, are you the guy that carried out the barrel of diamonds that we stole?"

"Yup, that was me."

"Hey, how you doing?"

"Well, pretty good I guess."

"What the hell are you doing on Skullbire?"

"There's good business here. Anyway, is this your girlfriend?" He pointed at Star.

She retorted, "No. I'm helping him find his girlfriend."

"That's why I'm here. That bastard Eggman kidnapped her."

"Robotnick? So he's still causing shit on Mobius?"

"More than ever. So do you know if he's been here?"

Setrid started cleaning a shot glass, "All I know is that there's a base that was constructed yesterday. It's about two miles east of here. Maybe you should go check it out."

"Sounds good. See you later Setrid." Manic tried to walk off but a drunk anthro pushed him.

"Whatcha got bitch!"

Manic rolled his eyes and turned to Star, "We don't have time for this." He tried to walk off again, but the dog continued to belittle him and push him.

"Come fight me you faggot." Then he punched Manic in the face.

"Manic! Are you okay?" Star asked, concerned.

He cracked his jaw, "I've had women slap me harder than that." Then he turned to the assailant. "Look, you wanna fight so bad? Then let's fight."

Now this guy looked tough. He was as tall as Manic, but he was really powerful. Manic threw a punch at him with his gauntlet, which sent him tumbling over a table. He proceeded to pick up the table and throw it at Manic. He used his powers to grab it in mid-air and throw it back. While the dog was on the ground, Manic got down and finished him off by punching him hard in the face.

At this point people were screaming and running out of the bar, except for Setrid and Star, who were happy that the man was knocked out.

"Alright, come on Star. See ya Setrid." Said Manic, catching his breath.

"Bye Manic." Setrid cleaned off the shot glass and put it away.

Star was surprised at Manic, "Wow, that was cool."

"What, that? That was nothing."

"Whatever you say, tough guy." Manic and Star found the rest of the group, and Manic told them about the base. Sonia gave him crap about leaving the group again the whole way there. Manic could see the top of what looked like an Eggman base on the horizon. As they got closer, he noticed that it looked exactly like the one on Mobius. And it must have been built in record time.

They got to the front door, hatch type thing, and got ready to storm in. When they opened the hatch door, it looked completely abandoned, just like the one in Mobius. Except for one thing, they could hear Eggman talking from his office. The gang quietly walked up to his office door, and this is what they heard.

"How long are we going to keep this up? Sonic and his gang are going to find us eventually." Said Shadow.

"I don't care. My last hope is Firecove. Thankfully, it's hardly populated. Perfect for my empire." Eggman responded.

"You'll never be able to get away with this. Manic and Sonic will stop you." Said Blaze.

That was it for Manic. He kicked in the door to find that no one was there. The only thing that was there was a tape recorder on the desk. Manic picked it up and realized that it was on a loop. Out of anger he broke it against the wall. Then, Eggman's ugly face popped up on the computer screen.

"Hello Manic. Looks like you've tracked me this far. I want you to know that my empire is coming along nicely."

"Eggman! Where are you?" Screamed Manic.

"Calm down. I'm on Firecove. And don't worry, your girlfriend is perfectly fine."

"I swear to God, if you hurt her in any way, I'll kill you!"

"I'd be telling that to Shadow. But I think it's time for me to go. Have fun getting here."

"Fuck you!" Manic growled and threw the monitor on the ground, breaking it.

"Manic, calm down!" Yelled Star.

"Don't worry Manic, we'll get Blaze back." Said Tails.

Manic took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "We need to go to Firecove."

**I know that it took me a while to upload this chapter, but I kinda took a break from writing. I have a pretty full August, so I probably won't upload Chapter 22 until sometime September or late August. REVIEW!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22. Just keep this in mind when you continue on with the story. Not everything is as it seems. Oh and the theme of this chapter is Sugarcoat by Breaking Benjamin.**

Manic flopped down on his bed like a sack of bricks. He didn't want to do anything but hope that they would get to Firecove as quick as possible. There was nothing in his room to keep him busy, so he just stared at the ceiling and patted a beat on his stomach. It reminded him of when he used to drum for the Sonic Underground. That's before he learned that he didn't need his drums to use his powers. That's also when he was the weakest of his siblings. Now he and Shadow are probably the most powerful beings that were ever born (or created). It took Manic a while to figure out that he could control anything that was made out of Earth elements, not just Earth itself. He still hopes that some Light Chaos Energy snuck in with the Dark Energy. Nothing can be complete darkness. Manic wondered if Sonic had a being inside him that took over when he turned into Dark Sonic. Manic's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door.

"Come in."

Star came in with a sandwich on a plate, and a full liter of Pepsi. Manic sat up and noticed that she had changed back into her normal clothes. How did she have a sandwich though? He thought Tails only had what scraps were left from Amy's party. Maybe he got some supplies from Direbay or Skullbire.

She smiled, "Cream wanted me to bring these to you. She thought that you might want them. I did too." She handed him the food and drink. Manic took them willingly and set them next to him.

"Thanks. Do you know how long it should take us?"

"I think Tails said five days. He fixed the system and now it should give us the right time." She turned to leave, "You probably want to be left alone."

"No, I'm glad that you're here. I haven't talked to anybody since we got on the ship."

Star sat down next to him, "Do you think you'll be alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine as long as we get to the planet."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Do you want to cry about it?" She wasn't being sarcastic.

Manic smiled, "I haven't cried since I was fifteen when my father figure was taken away and roboticized."

Star cocked her head, "Roboticized?"

"It's a horrible thing that Eggman did with his captured victims. He'd take them to a machine called the "Roboticizer", which turned them into robots that followed his every command. There was another machine called the "De-Roboticizer" that changed his victims back into normal people. But we could never get a hold of it. I don't think that he does that stuff anymore but he kept his victims."

"That sucks. Do you think he'll roboticize her?"

"I don't know." They sat there in silence for a while.

"Hey Manic?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think you ever told me her name. What is it?"

"Her name's Blaze the Cat. She has pyrokinetic powers. I really don't understand why she just hasn't broke out of wherever Eggman's holding her. There's gotta be a good reason." Manic got a little choked up, but nothing noticeable.

"We'll find her. Well I have to go. Cream's waiting for me." Star gave Manic a quick friendly hug before she left. Manic smiled as she walked off. He forgot about how hungry he was, so he started on his sandwich. After he was done, he used the Pepsi to wash it all down. He drank about half of it before he laid back down to go to sleep. When he was almost there, Sonic came barging in.

"Hey dude. We're gonna have band practice if you want to come with us. You still play drums right?"

Manic sat up again, "I'm more into singing. Besides, I left my medallion at home."

"No problem. Tails has a drum kit in the auditorium. But Knuckles can play the drums if you don't want to. He's not as good as you, but he's pretty damn good."

"Alright, I'll be down in a little bit. You still play guitar really good right?"

"You know it. See ya there." Sonic left the door wide open. Manic got up to close it, but since he was already there, he might as well go to the auditorium. He made it through a series of hallways and finally made it. It was the same room they were in when they threw the party when Cosmo and the Chaotix were with them. On the stage was a guitar, mic, bass guitar, and a drum set. Sonic was on the guitar, Knuckles was on the drums, and Manic walked up and got on the mic.

"Hey! Who's gonna play bass?" Asked Manic through the microphone.

"Well, it would be Blaze. But she's not here." Said Knuckles.

"Blaze plays the bass?"

"Yeah, I guess you don't know her that well." Laughed Sonic.

"It doesn't matter. We can play without the bass. It just won't sound as cool. So, any suggestions?" Asked Manic.

"Oh, I know. How about Psychosocial by Slipknot?" Asked Sonic.

"I'm not sure if I know that song." Said Knuckles.

"Wait, I know a song that we all know. Sugarcoat by Breaking Benjamin." Said Manic.

"Huh, sure. Are you gonna be able to do the screaming part?" Asked Sonic.

"Oh yeah. Are there gonna be people watching us play?" Asked Manic.

"Of course there are. We need critics. And besides, they're our friends. They're not gonna make fun of us." Explained Knuckles. People started walking in and asked what was going on. They quickly realized they were going to play a song. Among them was Star, who winked at Manic and smiled.

"Alright, let's get started." Said Sonic. Sonic started the song with the first riff, along with the drums. After about 29 seconds, Manic started to sing.

_It started again,_

_Claimin' a friend,_

_I couldn't be,_

_I've never been._

_I'm all alone,_

_Out in the cold,_

_I'll never know,_

_Your Sugarcoat._

_You're ready to blow,_

_You're ready to go,_

_But I'll never know,_

_Your Sugarcoat,_

_Is just as sweet as I am._

_(GROWL) LOOK WHAT YOU DID,_

_SUCK ON YOUR LIES 'TILL YOUR EYES TURN RED!_

_(GROWL) WHAT DID YOU SAY,_

_WILLING TO DROWN IN A TIDAL WAVE!_

_Take me away,_

_Let me believe that you're on your way._

_(GROWL) LOOK WHAT YOU DID,_

_SUCK ON YOUR LIES 'TILL YOUR EYES TURN RED!_

_I'm on the floor,_

_Battered and bored,_

_You've got a taste,_

_I can't ignore._

_I'm all alone,_

_Out in the cold,_

_I'll never know,_

_Your Sugarcoat._

_You're ready to blow,_

_You're ready to go,_

_But I'll never know,_

_Your Sugarcoat,_

_Is just as sweet as I am._

_(GROWL) LOOK WHAT YOU DID,_

_SUCK ON YOUR LIES 'TILL YOUR EYES TURN RED!_

_(GROWL) WHAT DID YOU SAY,_

_WILLING TO DROWN IN A TIDAL WAVE!_

_Take me away,_

_Let me believe that you're on your way._

_(GROWL) LOOK WHAT YOU DID,_

_SUCK ON YOUR LIES 'TILL YOUR EYES TURN RED!_

Sonic did a guitar solo before Manic started singing again.

_(GROWL) LOOK WHAT YOU DID,_

_SUCK ON YOUR LIES 'TILL YOUR EYES TURN RED!_

_(GROWL) WHAT DID YOU SAY,_

_WILLING TO DROWN IN A TIDAL WAVE!_

_Take me away,_

_Let me believe that you're on your way._

_(GROWL) LOOK WHAT YOU DID,_

_SUCK ON YOUR LIES 'TILL YOUR EYES TURN RED!_

_Red!_

_Your eyes are red!_

Then Sonic and Knuckles finished out the rest of the song. The crowd of their friends were cheering.

Manic got on the mic, "Thank you. But that's all we've got." Manic turned to Sonic and Knuckles, "Thanks guys. I feel a lot better now."

"Well that's the only reason that we did this." Said Sonic. Manic put his mic on the stand and walked off the stage, receiving pats on the back from his friends.

Star smiled, "Manic, I didn't know you could sing. That was great!"

"Well thanks. I'd usually be playing the drums, but I felt like doing this instead. I'm gonna head back to my room and finish off that soda. See you later." Star said bye as Manic walked off. When he made it back, he instantly started feeling bad again. He laid down on his bed and polished off the Pepsi. Then his stomach started to hurt a little. He burped and he felt better again. He started thinking to himself.

_This is not what I should be doing. I can't be just laying here doing nothing for the next five freaking days._

**FIVE DAYS LATER**

Manic was laughing as he entered his room. He's never heard Sonia cuss at Sonic for leaving his shoes in front of her door before. The first time he did it was when they destroyed Robotnick's base for the first time. Sonia went to her room to fix her hair. Sonic's shoes were really stinky from running around all day. Sonia got pissed be cause the smell stayed on her until she took a shower about an hour later.

At that moment, Manic felt a horrible rattling feeling spread all over the Blue Typhoon. Manic bolted upright and sprinted out of his room. He headed toward the cockpit as fast as he could, and found Sonic already putting up the shields.

"Sonic, what the hell is going on?" Yelled Manic.

"We're being attacked by Eggman's troops. The shields can only block bullets, but they can still jump onto the ship. We're gonna have to get up on the deck and fight them off."

"Already on it." Said Amy as she and the others ran past the door toward the stairs. Manic and Sonic followed them up to the deck. As Sonic predicted, the SWATbots were already jumping onto the Blue Typhoon. To save the trouble of destroying them one by one, Manic swung his arm horizontally across his body and took out the current Bots that were on the deck. It took a good amount of energy to do this, so he couldn't repeat the same move too much. As more dropped down, the gang started to fight them off. Since they were metal, Manic just ripped them apart using his powers. Star used her Katana to slice through them like warm butter, and used her throwing knives to pierce and destroy the circuits in the heads of the Bots. Sonic terminated them at incredible speed, tearing holes in them one after the other. Knuckles and Tails had their own group of Bots to annihilate, Tails went at them with a laser gun, while Knuckles pulled their heads off. Sonia, Cream and Amy had their own attacks going on. Amy crushed Bots with her hammer, Cream flew into them and knocked them down, then Sonia destroyed their heads by curb stomping them. Things were going smoothly, until Manic noticed that they were creeping up on Firecove.

Manic was in the middle of ripping the arms and legs off of a SWATbot, "Hey Tails! We're coming up on Firecove!"

Tails executed a Bot, "Okay! If you can hold off the Bots, I'll take over the ship!"

"Alright, everyone inside!" Yelled Manic. The gang managed to get away from the Bots and scurry inside. When they did, Manic stood in the doorway and summoned his inner strength. He put his hands out in front of him, and the SWATbots stopped in their tracks, then collapsed. Manic had completely drained all the power in the Bots. Not only them, but his surge of energy had brought down the ships that surrounded the Blue Typhoon. Unfortunately, the ones that were overhead, were now falling toward the ship. Manic had to stop two of them in mid-air, and then managed to throw them far away into the void of space.

When he was done, he ran into the cockpit, nearly out of energy. They were now entering the atmosphere. When they got out, Manic observed the planet. It was almost complete lava. There was land, and Manic could see Eggman's base from where they were. Around it was Eggman's empire. He was right, it was coming along nicely. Manic could tell that he was trying to make it look like Mobotropolis, except it had a kind of twist that only Eggman would think of. When they landed, Tails inspected the ship. The major blast obliterated their left thruster. Luckily, they had three others. One on the right, top, and bottom.

Tails got angry, "This is so stupid! How did Eggman know we were almost here?"

"I don't know. Maybe, he saw us through a telescope?" Said Sonic.

"Impossible! There's too much ash in the air to see through."

Manic noticed Star walking out of the room, she had her hand up to her ear. Manic followed her silently. She walked until she got to the dining room. Manic waited outside, and this is what he heard.

"I told you it wouldn't work. Manic's too powerful. Why the hell did you run those experiments on him in the first place?" He guessed someone else was talking, because Star stopped.

"We're on Firecove right now Eggman. You're right, I should have just killed Manic when I had the chance. I'll talk to you later boss, we're about to leave."

Manic got extremely pissed off. Star walked out of the room, and Manic grabbed her by the throat and slammed her up against the wall.

"What...the...hell?" Gasped Star.

"Shut up! So you're working for Eggman? I should have known!"

"You know nothing...Eggman has big plans. And his Empire...isn't it."

Manic lowered his eyebrows, "What the hell are you talking about?"

She laughed, "You're just gonna have to...find out."

"BITCH!" Manic threw her down the hallway, and she slammed into the wall, knocking her out. The gang came running in, wondering what was going on. They saw Star unconscious on the ground and instantly turned to Manic.

"What did you do to her?" Yelled Amy.

"That bitch is working for Eggman."

Tails stepped up, "Come on, we don't have time for this. Let's just bring her to Eggman and let him deal with her."

Knuckles picked her up and the gang headed out of the ship. As they walked toward the empire, they had to make sure they stayed on the rock path to the false Mobotropolis. It was a long walk, but they managed to get there. They were in the under-construction city when Eggman's ugly face appeared on a giant TV that was on a building down the street.

"Hello. It looks like you've found out about Star. Just bring her to me, and I'll make sure that my Bots don't attack you." Then the TV turned off. Manic and the rest hesitantly walked through the city. They looked from left to right at all the Bots that were just aching to kill them. They got closer and closer to the base. Finally when they made it, they were semi-pleasantly greeted by Eggman.

"You made it. Let me bring you to my office." The group reluctantly followed him to the same office that the other ones had. Knuckles laid Star on the ground.

"Alright Robotnick, we brought you Star. Let me see Blaze." Demanded Manic.

"Be my guest. She's in there." Eggman pointed to a door. Manic opened the door and walked in. Blaze was sitting in a chair with her hands and ankles bound together by metal chains.

She looked up, "Manic? Is that you?"

Manic ran over and broke the chains. Blaze launched up and hugged him extremely tight. She then kissed him with the kind of spark that made Manic's muscles relax.

"I can't believe you're here." Blaze released him and smiled.

"I wasn't gonna let anything get in my way. Besides, it's been boring since you've been gone." Manic grabbed her hand, "Come on, let's go." They walked out, and found that the only ones in the room were Eggman and, a now conscious, Star.

"Where is everyone?" Asked Manic.

"Oh, they're here. But before you can leave, there is one last thing I have to do." Star pulled out a remote and clicked the red button in the middle. Before Manic could react, Blaze knocked him out from behind.

**30 MINUTES LATER**

Manic woke up on a platform that was facing the ceiling. He felt himself being slowly tilted forward to where he could see what was in front of him. Eggman was standing there with a device that resembled the one that put the Dark Chaos energy in him. Manic noticed that a lifeless Chaos Emerald was attached to the back.

Manic struggled with the fact that metal cuffs were actually holding him down. "What's going on Eggman!"

"Well, I realized that it was a mistake to insert Dark Chaos energy into you. It made you too powerful. This device was made with you in mind. It will suck the Dark energy right out of you." Said the tyrant.

Manic looked to his right to find that all his friends were bound in chains, struggling to get free. Even little Cheese had tiny chains around him. Blaze was standing next to Manic, grinning eagerly.

This surprised him, "Blaze? What are you doing?"

Eggman interrupted, "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I planted a chip in her brain that lets me control her with this remote." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the device. "Now, let's get on with this." Eggman readied the Dark energy remover. Manic and his friends could only watch in horror as the needle got closer and closer.

Even though Blaze was being brainwashed, she still didn't like watching what was happening. In fact, seeing this made her snap out of it, and made her fight back the brainwashing with sheer will force. Right as the needle was about to enter Manic's chest, Blaze grabbed it and threw it far across the room. Eggman was too dumbfounded to do anything, so he called for Star. As soon as Blaze freed Manic, Star came barging in with her Katana drawn.

"Looks like you might get out of here after all Manic. Hey, Blaze. Do you mind? I want to fight just him." She said in a seductive manner.

Blaze hesitated, but Manic grabbed her shoulder lightly and nodded. Blaze took that as the sign to go free Sonic and the rest.

Manic and Star circled one another for a time.

"What did you mean when you said that Eggman has big plans?" Asked Manic.

"He's building an army. He's injecting all of his patients with the Dark Chaos energy. The only problem is, he can't make them as strong as you because there are so many patients, and so little Chaos Energy. Every planet he's been to, he's abducted a handful of citizens. His intentions were to draw you here to make you powerless. But that failed."

"An army is no match for my friends and me. Where has he been injecting these people at?"

"In the buildings that you passed on the way here. But since you've compromised his compound, he'll probably resort to Plan B."

"What's that?"

"That I can't tell you. But enough chit-chat. Time for you to die."

"If you've learned anything about me, it's that you're the one who's gonna die." Manic assumed his fight stance. Star rushed at him, swinging her sword at lightning speeds. Manic grabbed the sword with his powers and tossed it away from her.

"Hand-to-hand. You don't use your weapons, I won't use my powers." Said Manic as he took off his gauntlet.

"Fine, I do better CQC anyway." Boasted Star.

**MEANWHILE**

Blaze was having trouble trying to get her friends free. She knew she could easily melt the chains, but she didn't want to hurt her friends.

Sonic was still struggling, "You're gonna have to find a key. All the chains have locks on them. Eggman probably has it. Go find him."

"Alright, uh, you guys stay here." Blaze ran off in search for Eggman.

**MEANWHILE**

Star put up a good fight. Manic had a hard time keeping up with her. She was quick and agile, but lacked strength and defense. Manic on the other hand, was blocking all of her attacks, wearing her down. Star backed off a minute trying to regain stamina, and Manic kicked her with immense force in the stomach. Star fell to her knees coughing and trying to breath.

Manic knelt down next to her, "Nice try."

Star spoke with a disappointed tone, "Fine, I accept defeat. But in the long run, you'll lose Manic. One of the army might not be able to kill you, but fifteen or twenty will." Then she passed out.

**MEANWHILE**

Blaze finally caught up with Eggman and tackled him to the ground. Eggman shrieked as Blaze ripped the key off from around his neck. Then she ran back to the gang. Eggman just laid there, stunned. She sprinted back to gang, and unlocked Sonic first. She handed him the keys, and he unlocked everyone extremely fast.

**BACK TO MANIC**

Manic walked away from Star.

She looked up, "What are you doing? Kill me!"

Manic turned around, "You'd like that, wouldn't you? I may have defeated you, but I'm not a murderer."

"You've defeated me! It's only right that you kill me!"

"Listen, I know what you're getting at. You're probably one of those people who doesn't know what it's like to lose. Everyone is defeated at something at some point in their life. But you have to learn to live with it. So that's why I'm not going to kill you." Manic walked away, leaving her on her knees eying him angrily. He picked up his gauntlet on the way. He met up with Blaze and the gang.

"How about we get back to Knothole." Said Amy.

"That sounds great. Let's go." Said Tails. They all started to head out of Eggman's base. Manic and Blaze walked next to each other. Manic leaned in and kissed her.

Blaze smiled, "What was that for?"

"I'm just glad that we got you back." That's when Manic heard a sharp cracking sound, and felt a piercing feeling shoot through the back of his leg. Manic growled and turned around. He saw Shadow standing there with a pistol.

"Manic!" Yelled Blaze.

"Blaze, tell Sonic and the rest to get out of here. Now!"

"But what about you?"

"I'll catch up. Now go!"

Blaze ran off, leaving Manic to fight Shadow.

"Why did you shoot me in the leg Shadow? You could have easily killed me."

Shadow smirked, "That's a tranquilizer dart. Right now you are slowly losing consciousness."

"What?" Manic did start feeling tired. In fact, he was rapidly falling asleep. He fell to his knees and crawled toward Shadow in an attempt to attack him. But he fell to his stomach, and went to sleep.

**I know it took a while for me to upload this, but I think it's a pretty decent chapter. We're creeping up on the end of this fic. But don't fret! I'm going to make a part 2. Review!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Depending on how I feel, this will be the last chapter. So get ready for Chapter 23. I think I might make this shorter than usual.**

Manic subconsciously felt himself being carried and put into a very small area that only he could fit into. He then felt the door to the small contraption close, and he slowly felt consciousness come back to him. He was in a small pod that had a window where his head was so he could look out.

Manic saw Shadow come into view, "Hello Manic. I bet you're wondering where you are. Well let me explain, you are in a specially designed pod that will travel into the void of space at the speed of light. There is a fifty fifty chance that you will land on a planet extremely far from here, or you will just float in the pod until the oxygen runs out."

Manic realized that he might die. The only thing that he could think about at that moment was the fact that he would never see Blaze, or his friends and family, again. It was very hard to cope with, but at this point he didn't have a choice. Manic tried to rip the door off the pod, but to no avail.

Shadow smirked at his attempt, "The pod is made out of a special material that you can't control."

Manic watched as Shadow walked over to a podium with a big red button on it.

"Goodbye Manic." Shadow pressed the button. Manic's whole life flashed before his eyes, for maybe the third or fourth time in his life. He felt the pod lift up into the sky. Shadow was right, it was fast. By the time he was out of the atmosphere, it had to have been going 700mph. Luckily, the design of the pod eliminated most of the G-force, so Manic just had to enjoy the ride. He stared out the window in a mixture of sadness and anger. He had come so far, just to die alone in a dark, starry abyss. The pod also had an auto temperature system, so when it got cold, it cranked the heat. Manic looked straight up and saw an O2 percentage gauge, that read 95% and slowly declining.

Manic closed his eyes, "Maybe if I'm lucky I can die in my sleep."

Manic opened his eyes in a shock, hoping that the whole situation was just a dream. But he was wrong. He looked up and in his dismay, the gauge was at 10%. From as far as he could tell, he was still in the middle of nowhere. Manic was disappointed that he was gonna suffocate to death in about another twenty minutes, but he had already come to terms with it.

Manic got sort of choked up, and Ashura popped into his head,

_You don't cry Manic. Man up._

_I never cry. But now would probably be a good time to, since I'm about to die._

_Just hold out a little longer, you might not know what will happen. Just wait. Manic? Manic!_

Manic had collapsed in the pod from the little amount of oxygen he had access to. There was just enough to keep his subconscious alive. He heard nothing but the sound of Ashura yelling at him.

**This is short, I know. But I needed to wrap it up. I'm gonna start on Part 2 soon.**


End file.
